Edible insects are generally reared on agricultural product-based diets. These feeding substrates may contain pesticides or toxins that are derived from field practices for plant growth and defence and that may represent a health risk to insect consumers. The present study investigated Tenebrio molitor capability to uptake from contaminated substrates three chemical compounds that are employed in agricultural practices: the insecticide deltamethrin (DELTA), the fungicide tebuconazole (TEB) and the plant growth regulator chlormequat chloride (CCC), all with different properties of lipophilicity and potentially harmful for human and animal health. Newly optimised and validated LC-MS/MS methods have been used for the quantification of pesticide residues in larvae samples. Analysis showed that DELTA and TEB are retained by larvae, even after 24 h of fasting, due to their lipophilicity. Larvae fasting period allowed the elimination of 47% of DELTA residues and 78% of TEB ones. Diversely, CCC, the most hydrophilic chemical compound, was completely eliminated after the fasting. The toxicity of pesticides to larvae has been also investigated. The highest mortality of T. molitor larvae (close to 50%) was recorded for the insecticide DELTA, at the dose of 20 mg/kg and for CCC (15%) at the concentration of 4 mg/kg. The safety of insects as food and feed represents an important section in the field of the control of food of animal origin and animal health. Nevertheless, to date, this aspect is not yet completely determined due to the lack of scientific data in this area. By assessing the accumulation rate of some chemicals in reared insects and by evaluating the toxic effects that chemicals may have on larvae, this study could contribute to filling this gap.

中文翻译：

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T虫幼虫中溴氰菊酯，戊丁康唑和氯甲基氯的生物蓄积及其与人类食用有关的风险

食用昆虫通常以农产品为基础的饮食饲养。这些饲喂底物可能含有农药或毒素，这些农药或毒素是从田间实践中提取出来的，用于植物生长和防御，可能对昆虫消费者构成健康风险。本研究调查了黄粉虫能够从被污染的基质中吸收三种在农业实践中使用的化合物：杀虫剂溴氰菊酯（DELTA），杀真菌剂戊唑醇（TEB）和植物生长调节剂氯代四氯甲烷（CCC），它们均具有不同的亲脂性，并且可能对人体有害人类和动物健康。新优化和验证的LC-MS / MS方法已用于定量幼虫样品中的农药残留。分析表明，即使在禁食24小时后，由于它们的亲脂性，DELTA和TEB也被幼虫保留。幼虫禁食期可消除47％的DELTA残基和78％的TEB残基。另外，禁食后完全消除了亲水性最强的化合物CCC。还研究了农药对幼虫的毒性。杀虫剂DELTA的浓度为20 mg / kg，而杀虫剂（CCC）的浓度为4 mg / kg的CCC（占15％）的mol。molitor幼虫（接近50％）被记录下来。昆虫作为食物和饲料的安全性是控制动物源性食物和动物健康食品领域的重要部分。然而，由于缺乏该领域的科学数据，迄今为止，这方面尚未完全确定。通过评估某些化学物质在饲养昆虫中的积累速率，并评估化学物质可能对幼虫的毒性作用，这项研究可能有助于填补这一空白。