Matt Landos, an ichthyologist at the Australian College of Veterinarian Scientists, investigated mutations in fish in the Noosa Basin and concluded that they were caused by chemicals from a nearby macadamia plantation. AFP news agency reported
As the biologist established, the mass death of fry in river fisheries is caused by a mutation that does not allow the fry to live for more than two days. Most often, the fish hatched from the eggs with two heads. The same deformity was noted in the poultry and sheep farms adjacent to the plantation. “In ten years of work, this is the first time I've encountered such a mutation,” says the scientist. "The tests I ran using water from the Noosa River exclude bacteria or viruses." Matt Landos suspects that the organophosphorus fertilizers carbendazim and endosulfan, which are banned in many countries, but not in Australia, are the cause of the deformities.
Mutations in living organisms can be caused not only by chemical, but also by unfavorable biological effects. For example, parasitic microorganisms that damaged frog eggs became the reason for the appearance of the fifth paw in frogs in some areas of the United States. The same deformity was recorded in the UK in the Nene River in Cambridgeshire. And in the Moscow River, external deformities and diseases in some species of fish make up 100% of the population (for example, the chub suffers from cirrhosis of the liver).