James A. Luoma Courtney A. Kirkeeng Samantha L. Wolfe Justin R. Schueller Hannah Mann Thompson Nicholas Schloesser 2025 <p><span>Non-target animal sensitivity remains a concern when treating Laurentian Great Lakes streams with 4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenol (TFM), the main pesticide used to control Sea Lamprey&nbsp;</span><i>Petromyzon marinus</i><span>&nbsp;as part of the bi-national Great Lakes Fishery Commission's Sea Lamprey Control Program. Populations of Burbot&nbsp;</span><i>Lota lota</i><span>, a historically and culturally important fish, inhabit some of the streams that are treated with TFM. While many species of fish inhabiting the Great Lakes streams have been assessed for sensitivity to TFM, we are not aware of previous research to assess the risk to Burbot. We assessed the sensitivity of Burbot to TFM using replicate 12-hour flow-through diluter toxicity tests. We found Burbot to have a median lethal concentration (LC</span>₅₀<span>) of 9.74 mg/L, while the minimum lethal concentration (LC</span>_99.9<span>) for Sea Lamprey was predicted to be 2.5 mg/L in similar waters. The resulting toxicity ratio (LC</span>₅₀<span>&nbsp;of non-target organism/LC</span>_99.9<span>&nbsp;of Sea Lamprey) of Burbot was 3.90, well above the toxicity ratios for known sensitive species. Our results suggest Burbot are not expected to be adversely affected during a typical TFM stream treatment.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1002/jwmg.70110 en The Wildlife Society Evaluation of the acute toxicity of the piscicide TFM to Burbot article