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Aquatic Animal Models – Not Just for Ecotox Anymore
Citation:
Villeneuve, Dan. Aquatic Animal Models – Not Just for Ecotox Anymore. Presented at Collaborative Workshop on Aquatic Animal Models and 21st Century Toxicology, Raleigh, NC, May 05 - 06, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
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Description:
A wide range of internationally harmonized toxicity test guidelines employing aquatic animal models have been established for regulatory use. For fish alone, there are over a dozen internationally harmonized toxicity test guidelines that have been, or are being, validated. To date, nearly all focus on direct observation of apical toxicity outcomes (i.e., impacts on survival, growth, or reproduction) and are intended solely to support ecological risk assessment. However, with increased attention to understanding mechanisms of toxicity, describing adverse outcome pathways, and collecting pathway-based data, there is increased opportunity to blur the lines between ecological and human health toxicity testing and risk assessment and take a more integrated approach that effectively employs available data, including data from alternative models. This presentation will introduce some of the most widely used fish-based toxicity tests. It will highlight some of the barriers that have prevented more widespread use of pathway-based data in a regulatory context. It will then describe the adverse outcome pathway framework and how formalism of that framework can support scientifically-defensible extrapolation of pathway-based data across levels of biological organization and among taxa. Examples illustrating use of the adverse outcome pathway framework to support a more integrated approach to toxicity testing and chemical hazard assessment will be provided. The contents of this abstract neither constitute nor necessarily reflect official US EPA views or policy. All studies using animals or animal tissues referred to in this presentation were carried out in accordance with applicable animal care laws, regulations, and guidelines and approved by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.