Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Evaluating the zebrafish embryo toxicity test for pesticide hazard screening.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Glaberman, S; Padilla, S; Barron, MG
Published in: Environmental toxicology and chemistry
May 2017

Given the numerous chemicals used in society, it is critical to develop tools for accurate and efficient evaluation of potential risks to human and ecological receptors. Fish embryo acute toxicity tests are 1 tool that has been shown to be highly predictive of standard, more resource-intensive, juvenile fish acute toxicity tests. However, there is also evidence that fish embryos are less sensitive than juvenile fish for certain types of chemicals, including neurotoxicants. The utility of fish embryos for pesticide hazard assessment was investigated by comparing published zebrafish embryo toxicity data from pesticides with median lethal concentration 50% (LC50) data for juveniles of 3 commonly tested fish species: rainbow trout, bluegill sunfish, and sheepshead minnow. A poor, albeit significant, relationship (r2  = 0.28; p < 0.05) was found between zebrafish embryo and juvenile fish toxicity when pesticides were considered as a single group, but a much better relationship (r2  = 0.64; p < 0.05) when pesticide mode of action was factored into an analysis of covariance. This discrepancy is partly explained by the large number of neurotoxic pesticides in the dataset, supporting previous findings that commonly used fish embryo toxicity test endpoints are particularly insensitive to neurotoxicants. These results indicate that it is still premature to replace juvenile fish toxicity tests with embryo-based tests such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Fish Embryo Acute Toxicity Test for routine pesticide hazard assessment, although embryo testing could be used with other screening tools for testing prioritization. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:1221-1226. © 2016 SETAC.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Environmental toxicology and chemistry

DOI

EISSN

1552-8618

ISSN

0730-7268

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

36

Issue

5

Start / End Page

1221 / 1226

Related Subject Headings

  • Zebrafish
  • Toxicity Tests, Acute
  • Pesticides
  • Perciformes
  • Oncorhynchus mykiss
  • Lethal Dose 50
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian
  • Cyprinidae
  • Animals
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Glaberman, S., Padilla, S., & Barron, M. G. (2017). Evaluating the zebrafish embryo toxicity test for pesticide hazard screening. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 36(5), 1221–1226. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.3641
Glaberman, Scott, Stephanie Padilla, and Mace G. Barron. “Evaluating the zebrafish embryo toxicity test for pesticide hazard screening.Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 36, no. 5 (May 2017): 1221–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.3641.
Glaberman S, Padilla S, Barron MG. Evaluating the zebrafish embryo toxicity test for pesticide hazard screening. Environmental toxicology and chemistry. 2017 May;36(5):1221–6.
Glaberman, Scott, et al. “Evaluating the zebrafish embryo toxicity test for pesticide hazard screening.Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, vol. 36, no. 5, May 2017, pp. 1221–26. Epmc, doi:10.1002/etc.3641.
Glaberman S, Padilla S, Barron MG. Evaluating the zebrafish embryo toxicity test for pesticide hazard screening. Environmental toxicology and chemistry. 2017 May;36(5):1221–1226.
Journal cover image

Published In

Environmental toxicology and chemistry

DOI

EISSN

1552-8618

ISSN

0730-7268

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

36

Issue

5

Start / End Page

1221 / 1226

Related Subject Headings

  • Zebrafish
  • Toxicity Tests, Acute
  • Pesticides
  • Perciformes
  • Oncorhynchus mykiss
  • Lethal Dose 50
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian
  • Cyprinidae
  • Animals