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The embryotoxicity of an artificial mixture of 18 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was tested by injection into the yolk sacs of eggs of four avian species: chicken Gallus domesticus, turkey Meleagris gallopavo, domestic duck Anas platyrhynchos and common eider Somateria mollissima. A dose of 2·0 mg kg egg−1 of the PAH mixture increased the mortality among the embryos of all four species. In the domestic duck, but not in the three other species, there was a significantly increased embryonic mortality at a dose of 0·2 mg kg−1 of this mixture. All 18 individual compounds in the mixture were tested for embryotoxicity in the chicken. The compound most toxic to chick embryos was benzo[k]fluoranthene. This substance also proved to be highly embryotoxic in the three other species. Previous studies have shown coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to be much more embryotoxic in the chicken than in other avian species studied. In accordance with this, eider duck embryos proved to be considerably less sensitive to 3,3′,4,4′-tetrachlorobiphenyl and 3,3′,4,4′,5-pentachlorobiphenyl than was previously found for chick embryos. For PAHs, however, chick embryos did not have a higher sensitivity than the other species tested.