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Towards an internationally harmonized test method for reproductive and developmental effects of endocrine disrupters in marine copepods

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Abstract

New and updated methods to detect and characterize endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are urgently needed for the purpose of environmental risk assessment since these substances are often not detected using existing chronic toxicity tests. Numerous reports on the effects of EDCs on crustacean development and reproduction have been published and the development of life-cycle tests with crustaceans has been prioritized within the OECD work program for endocrine disrupter testing and assessment. As a result, Sweden, and Denmark initiated a proposal for development of a full life-cycle test with marine copepods (Acartia tonsa, Nitocra spinipes, Tisbe battagliai, and Amphiascus tenuiremis). The present paper gives an overview on the endocrine system of crustaceans with special emphasis on development and reproduction, which are targets for endocrine disruption, and reviews available methods for detecting effects on development and reproduction in calanoid and harpacticoid copepods. A draft OECD guideline Copepod Development and Reproduction Test has been developed, and a pre-validation of this draft guideline was completed in 2005. An updated draft guideline, taking into account the results of the pre-validation, is now under validation in an international ring-test, which is running till the end of 2006.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Thomas H. Hutchinson, Tim D. Williams, Bengt-Erik Bengtsson, Magnus Breitholtz, G. Thomas Chandler, and Estelle Bjørnestad, experts who did fundamental work on method development with the various copepod species and who contributed with their enormous knowledge and invaluable experience to the development of the OECD guideline. For excellent technical assistance through many years we acknowledge Connie Seierø, Jane Bergstrøm, Camilla Hedberg, and Signe Qualmann. We thank the two master students Maria Casado Maldonado and Maria Martin Carnicero for their contribution to the pre-validation of the calanoid protocol. The development and pre-validation of the OECD draft guideline were supported by the Nordic Co-ordination Group for Test Method Development in Toxicology and Ecotoxicology (Nord-UTTE) under the Council of Nordic Ministers.

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  1. Institute of Environment and Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Building 113, Miljøvej 113, DK-2800 Kgs, Lyngby, Denmark

    K. Ole Kusk & Leah Wollenberger

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Kusk, K.O., Wollenberger, L. Towards an internationally harmonized test method for reproductive and developmental effects of endocrine disrupters in marine copepods. Ecotoxicology 16, 183–195 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-006-0112-2

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