[Testing the acute toxicity of chemicals using bacteria]
Two bacterial tests are used to screen the acute toxicity of 8 compounds which are known as pollutants in the air of stables. The procedures applied were batch-microcalorimetry (E.coli) and the Microtox(R)-test (P. phosphoreum). It is shown that both bacterial "screening models" are suitable to evaluate the acute toxicity of the compounds tested. The test results are compared to results from other toxicity tests using higher developed organisms; additionally the comparison included compounds from the literature. It is found that the results from the different test systems are significantly correlated as far as linear correlation and as rank correlation are concerned. The range of the results supports the suggestion to apply two or more short-term tests involving different test organisms in a "test battery". Bacterial short-term assays may not completely replace experiments involving animals but they allow an estimation of the toxic potential of substances which have not yet been tested and may thus reduce the necessary amount of experiments with animals.
Hartung
J.
J
Institut für Tierhygiene und Tierschutz der Tierärztlichen Hochschule D-Hannover.
Prüfung der akuten Toxizität mit Stoffen mit Bakterien.