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Environmental problems - Chemical approaches
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Developing a modern approach to assess ecological risk from pesticides without unnecessary vertebrate animal testing

David A. Dreier https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2669-7358 A * , Christian Picard B , Kent Kabler A , Natalia Ryan A , Haitian Lu A , Odette Alexander-Watkins A , John Abbott A , Richard A. Currie https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6528-3326 C , Douglas C. Wolf https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1868-9574 A and Tharacad Ramanarayanan A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, Greensboro, NC, USA.

B Exponent, Washington, DC, USA.

C Syngenta Ltd, Bracknell, UK.

* Correspondence to: david.dreier@syngenta.com

Handling Editor: Laura Langan

Environmental Chemistry 21, EN23105 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN23105
Submitted: 21 October 2023  Accepted: 8 May 2024  Published: 18 June 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing.

Abstract

Environmental context

Pesticides are critical to agriculture and food production but require ecological risk assessments. Although most risk assessments require data from vertebrate animal testing, we have developed an approach to assess risk to fish, birds and mammals using other means. This approach could help to ensure protection of the environment while minimising animal testing.

Rationale

Recent directives to reduce animal testing have implications for ecological risk assessment, as several vertebrate tests are used to support these assessments. Therefore, a modern approach was devised to address these key knowledge needs without the use of chemical-specific vertebrate testing.

Methodology

An ecological risk assessment for a novel acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitor herbicide was conducted using alternative lines of evidence. For fish, chemical toxicity distributions were constructed to quantify the probability of effects, and these distributions were compared with exposure estimates for a representative use in soybeans. The effect distributions were further refined based on invertebrate toxicity and partitioning behaviour. For birds and mammals, a joint probability curve was constructed by integrating chemical toxicity distributions and Kenaga exposure distributions.

Results

The lines of evidence presented in this predictive risk assessment suggest the intended use of a new ACCase inhibitor is unlikely to affect fish, birds, or mammals. Exposure was unlikely to exceed effect estimates, regardless of whether they were derived based on chemical-read across, invertebrate toxicity, or partitioning behaviour.

Discussion

Key knowledge needs for ecological risk assessment can be informed by lines of evidence that do not require animal testing. The present study demonstrates such an approach by comparing predicted exposure and effects, which are expected to be protective. This predictive approach can be extended to other active ingredients and chemical classes, as well as other taxonomic groups of interest. Future research should aim to integrate new approach methods in a predictive risk assessment framework.

Keywords: animal alternatives, chemical toxicity distributions, ecological risk assessment, ecotoxicology, joint probability distributions, modern approaches for testing and evaluation, new approach methodologies, probabilistic risk assessment, read-across.

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