title: Towards a strategic approaches in alternative tests for pesticide safety.
abstract: Pesticides have provided significant benefits including plant disease control and increased crop yields since people developed and utilized them. However, pesticide use is associated with many adverse effects, which necessitate precise toxicological tests and risk assessment. Most of these methods are based on animal studies, but considerations of animal welfare and ethics require the development of alternative methods for the evaluation of pesticide toxicity. Although the usage of laboratory animals is inevitable in scientific evaluation and alternative approaches have limitations in the whole coverage, continuous effort is necessary to minimize animal use and to develop reliable alternative tests for pesticide evaluation. This review discusses alternative approaches for pesticide toxicity tests and hazard evaluation that have been used in peer-reviewed reports and could be applied in future studies based on the critical animal research principles of reduction, replacement, and refinement.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Toxicology, BK21 PLUS Program for Creative Veterinary Science Research, Research Institute for Veterinary Science and College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yoonjeong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Toxicology, BK21 PLUS Program for Creative Veterinary Science Research, Research Institute for Veterinary Science and College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio Applied Toxicology, Hoseo Toxicology Research Center, Hoseo University, Asan, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Toxicology, BK21 PLUS Program for Creative Veterinary Science Research, Research Institute for Veterinary Science and College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea ; Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Suwon, Korea ; Graduate Group of Tumor Biology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea ; Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology, Seoul National University, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Myung-Haing
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Cho
keywords: Alternative approach; Pesticides; Pesticides evaluation; Toxicological methods