Scientists studying intersex fish in the Potomac River basin have found the abnormality for the first time in redbreast sunfish, the third species affected by the mysterious phenomenon, a federal fish pathologist said Tuesday.

Vicki Blazer of the U.S. Geological Survey said she verified the abnormality in sunfish last week while preparing for her talk Tuesday at the start of a three-day conference on fish kills in the six-state Chesapeake Bay watershed. The conference was sponsored by the Annapolis-based Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Blazer said intersex and fish kills may be related because many of the killed fish appear to have had suppressed immune systems. There is increasing evidence that immune cells and disease resistance are affected by contaminants including chemical compounds that stimulate estrogen production, Blazer said.

Another factor in intersex development could be increased aquatic levels of natural and synthetic hormones, such as those in birth-control pills, which often aren't removed by wastewater treatment plants, Blazer said. Poultry manure, which is used as fertilizer in agricultural fields, is also high in steroids identical to human female and male hormones, although no cause-and-effect evidence linking poultry manure to intersex fish exists, researchers said.

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[Soon you don't have to have the expensive hormonal treatment to undergo a gender change; drinking tap water is just fine. Thanks NWO!]