Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is one of the widely used organophosphorus pesticides in agriculture activities and its presence in the aquatic environment has been broadly recorded. In the present study, we investigated the effect of CPF exposure on oxidative stress, innate immunity, sexual hormones, and DNA integrity of female African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, in addition to the potential use of dietary supplementation of papaya, Carica papaya (CP), extract against CPF toxicity. Apparent healthy female catfish (300 ± 10 g) were divided into four groups with three replicates each. The first group served as the negative control (fed on a basal diet) and the other groups exposed to CPF (8.75 µg/L) with or without CP extract (250 mg/kg body weight) for six weeks. The results revealed that CPF exposure exhibited marked elevations in stress markers (glucose and cortisol), serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase activities, testosterone, and luteinizing hormone level. Moreover, CPF increased the percentage of hepatic DNA damage. In addition, catfish exposed to CPF experienced significant decline in serum total protein, albumin, follicles stimulating hormone, estradiol hormone levels, AChE, immunoglobulin, and lysozyme activity. CPF induced significantly oxidative stress in hepatic and renal tissues. The dietary supplementation with CP extract at a level of 250 mg/kg body weight succeeded to alleviate the negative effects of CPF on the physiological, immunological, and antioxidant status of female catfish. In addition, CP extract alleviated the endocrine disruption and hepatic DNA damage and counteracted the subchronic CPF toxicity in female African catfish. Finally, the CP extract may be used as a feed additive in the aquatic diet.

Humans occupy different habitats across the world, they managed to invade all environments in all parts of the whole earth. Due to their drastic invasion of all natural environments, they altered the food composition and feeding ecology of several animals especially those who are sharing the humans their habitats such as gardens and fields. Two populations of hedgehogs Hemiechinus auritus and Paraechinus aethiopicus inhabiting different localities in Egypt were studied thoroughly by using stomach contents analysis between October 2022 and October 2023. Detailed stomach analysis of stomach contents of 20 hedgehogs of H. auritus and 15 hedgehogs of P. aethiopicus showed that although they live in different habitats and could not interact with each other, but the food of both is highly assorted and highly affected by humans. Adequate insects, plant materials, cooked rice, eggshells, worms, garbage, and remnants of mammals and birds are detected as diet categories of their foods regimes. Seasonal variations in their diets were obviously related to the changes in the availability of different food materials. The results elucidated that although the two hedgehogs inhabit different localities, they adapted to consume several items of food benefited directly from the great impact of humans on their native environments.