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AN OVERVIEW OF OECD AND EPA/ORD ACTIVITIES RELATED TO AMPHIBIAN TESTING
Citation:
Ankley, G T. AN OVERVIEW OF OECD AND EPA/ORD ACTIVITIES RELATED TO AMPHIBIAN TESTING. Presented at Learning Fund Workshop on Amphibian Toxicity Test Methods, Vancouver, BC, Canada, January 17-19, 2002.
Description:
There has been significant recent activity related to testing amphibians in a regulatory setting. Much of this has emanated from interest by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in utilizing amphibians in screening assays to detect certain classes of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), in particular, those with the potential to affect thyroid function. There appears to be an emerging consensus that an appropriate assay for thyroid-active EDCs could be based on a combination of apical and system-specific measures of thyroid function associated with metamorphosis. In addition, both EPA and OECD are interested in developing partial life-cycle assays with amphibians suitable for more intensive ecological risk assessments for EDCs, as well as other types of chemical and non-chemical stressors. Species of particular interest for these higher-tier tests have been anurans native to discrete geographic areas as opposed, for example, to Xenopus (laevis or tropicalis). This talk will update participants as to these activities, as well as briefly describe outcomes from a recent workshop focused on assessing the utility of FETAX (Fror Enbryo Tegatogenesis Assay-Xenopus) for human health and ecological risk assessments. This abstract does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.