title: Acute oral toxicity of chemicals in terrestrial life stages of amphibians: Comparisons to birds and mammals.
abstract: Amphibians are currently the most threatened and rapidly declining group of vertebrates and this has raised concerns about their potential sensitivity and exposure to plant protection products and other chemicals. Current environmental risk assessment procedures rely on surrogate species (e.g. fish and birds) to cover the risk to aquatic and terrestrial life stages of amphibians, respectively. Whilst a recent meta-analysis has shown that in most cases amphibian aquatic life stages are less sensitive to chemicals than fish, little research has been conducted on the comparative sensitivity of terrestrial amphibian life stages. Therefore, in this paper we address the questions "What is the relative sensitivity of terrestrial amphibian life stages to acute chemical oral exposure when compared with mammals and birds?" and "Are there correlations between oral toxicity data for amphibians and data for mammals or birds?" Identifying a relationship between these data may help to avoid additional vertebrate testing. Acute oral amphibian toxicity data collected from the scientific literature and ecotoxicological databases were compared with toxicity data for mammals and birds. Toxicity data for terrestrial amphibian life stages are generally sparse, as noted in previous reviews. Single-dose oral toxicity data for terrestrial amphibian life stages were available for 26 chemicals and these were positively correlated with LD50 values for mammals, while no correlation was found for birds. Further, the data suggest that oral toxicity to terrestrial amphibian life stages is similar to or lower than that for mammals and birds, with a few exceptions. Thus, mammals or birds are considered adequate toxicity surrogates for use in the assessment of the oral exposure route in amphibians. However, there is a need for further data on a wider range of chemicals to explore the wider applicability of the current analyses and recommendations.
authors.affiliation: AG-HERA, 23 London Street, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, SN7 7AG, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crane
authors.affiliation: Syngenta, Jealott's Hill International Research Centre, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG42 6EX, UK.
authors.forename: Meaghean
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Finnegan
authors.affiliation: BASF SE, Crop Protection - Ecotoxicology, Speyerer-Strasse 2, D-67117, Limburgerhof, Germany. Electronic address: Lennart.weltje@basf.com.
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Weltje
authors.affiliation: WCA Environment, Brunel House, Volunteer Way, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, SN7 7YR, UK.
authors.forename: Sylwia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kosmala-Grzechnik
authors.affiliation: WCA Environment, Brunel House, Volunteer Way, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, SN7 7YR, UK.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.affiliation: Dow AgroSciences, 3B Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4RN, UK.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wheeler
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000663:Amphibians / Q000254:growth & development*; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D008322:Mammals; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013045:Species Specificity; D023382:Toxicity Tests, Acute / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants
keywords: Amphibians; Oral exposure; Terrestrial toxicity