Monitoring and in vivo ecotoxicological evaluation of surface water quality in Umbria and Tuscany, Italy

New Zealand White male rabbits have been watered for 45 days with surface water taken from three sites on Lake Trasimeno (Umbria, Italy) and from two artificial reservoirs along the Tiber River, one located on the upper tract of the river, just at the border between the regions of Tuscany and Umbria, and the other at the southernmost end of the Tiber Umbrian tract, just before it leaves Umbria. The detoxifying enzymatic activity (EROD) in rabbits was evaluated and used as an indicator of the chemical contamination of surface water due to various classes of micropollutants including organochlorinate pesticides (OCPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The comparison between EROD values and the concentrations of organic micropollutant found in the water matrices showed that MFO hepatic activity in the rabbits is a sensitive, measurable biological parameter for quantitatively evaluating the presence of xenobiotic compounds in the environment. It can therefore be used as a sufficiently accurate method for evaluating in vivo surface water quality in ecotoxicological screening models over vast areas.