The effects of water source on reproductive outcome in Fischer-344 rats.

To investigate the relation between maternal water consumption and pregnancy loss, we conducted a reproductive toxicology study using Fischer rats. On day 0 of gestation, dams were assigned to tapwater, commercial bottled water, or purchased high pressure liquid chromatography grade water. On day 20 of gestation, we killed the dams and removed their litters for examination. There were no marked effects of dietary water source on maternal body weight, number of implantation sites, number of live fetuses, sex of offspring or number of resorptions per litter. Fetal length and weight, placenta weight, and soft tissue and skeletal malformations were also similar among groups. The tapwater group had somewhat higher resorption frequency (5.3%) and frequency of affected fetuses (6.5%) than those fed bottled water (3.8% and 4.5%, respectively).