en Toxicology Toxicology پژوهشي Orginal research papers <p>Artemia is one of the most important test organisms available for ecotoxicity test. In this study the toxicity of five widely used herbicides formulations including: Paraquat, 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D), Trifluralin, Glyphosite and Atrazin were compared using ecotoxicity bioindicator, <em>Artemia franciscana.</em> A<em>cute toxicity (48 h LC50) of five herbicides were determined via OECD standard method. Artemia were hatched via standard method and<br> 12 h old nauplii were used for toxicity evaluation of herbicides. </em><em>Naupliis</em>&nbsp; exposed to <em>Serial </em><em>concentrations (more than 6 in triplicates) of each herbicid.&nbsp; </em><em>Mortalities at 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours after exposure were recorded and the LC50 were calculated using Probit software.</em> <em>Results showed </em>that the mortality rate increased along with increasing the exposure time in all herbicide toxicity assays. Besides 48 hours LC50 value of Paraquat, 2,4-D, Trifluralin, Glyphosite and Atarzine calculated at 15.67, 12.93, 11.87, 164.31 and 61.34 mg/L in <em>A. franciscana</em> respectively. Glyphosate showed significantly lesser lethality and toxicity while Trifluralin and 2,4-D showed the highest toxicity in&nbsp; <em>A. franciscana</em> among the examined herbicides. Then for sustainable agricultural activity, especially in areas that runoff water flow to aquatic&nbsp; ecosystems, it is highly recommended to use environmental friendly herbicides like glyphosate as an alternative to highly toxic herbicides like trifluralin, Paraquat and 2,4-D. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first study comparing the toxicity of highly used herbicides using &nbsp;ecotoxicity bioindicator, <em>Artemia franciscana</em>.</p> Toxicity, Herbicide, Artemia franciscana, Ecotoxicity bioindicator 716 726 http://jifro.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-792-5&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M Alishahi alishahim@scu.ac.ir 100319475328460030889 100319475328460030889 Yes Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran Z Tulaby Dezfuly z.tulaby@gmail.com 100319475328460030890 100319475328460030890 No Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran