PARENT SESSION

2P Modelling ecotoxic effects
Poster Hall
8:30 AM - Monday, 28 April 2003

(MOP/154) Avian acute oral toxicity: Purpose for risk assessment.

Edwards, P.¹, Chapman, P.¹, Hart, A.², Joermann, G.³, Leoplold, A.⁴, Luttick, R.⁵, Mastrota, N.⁶, Mineau, P.⁷, Romijn, K.⁷, ¹ Syngenta, Bracknell, Berkshire, UK² Central science Laboratory, York, Yorkshire, UK³ B.B.A., Braunschweig, Hanover, Germany⁴ Wildlife International, Easton, Maryland, USA⁵ R.I.V.M., Bilthoven, Utrecht, Netherlands⁶ Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, US⁷ Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Ottowa, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT- The purpose of the acute oral toxicity test for many years was in hazard assessment and labelling. This has changed with the rapid development of deterministic and more recently probabilistic risk assessment. Groups like the OECD/SETAC avian expert group and ECOFRAM have identified some of the key requirements of acute oral toxicity testing for more rigorous risk assessment. The objectives of acute oral toxicity testing include: 1 producing a deterministic risk quotient or toxicity-exposure ratio for preliminary risk assessment; 2 measuring comparative toxicity between species to estimate species sensitivity distributions; 4 describing the dose response for probabilistic risk assessment. With these developments there is a need to consider the balance between the level of certainty required in risk assessment and improved animal welfare. This presentation examines this issue and its implications for the design of toxicity tests. Statistical evaluation of alternative test designs is reported in an accompanying presentation (Chapman et al.).

Key words: avian, acute oral toxixity