Detailed Review Paper on Fish Screening Assays for the Detection of Endocrine Active Substances

Abstract

LIST OF TABLES ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe OECD Secretariat would like to acknowledge the contributions of national experts who provided extensive comments on the draft version of this detailed review paper:• US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Science Coordination and Policy, who prepared the original version of this document; • Brunel University, Department Biological Sciences, United Kingdom;• US Environmental Protection Agency, Mid-Continent Ecology Division (Duluth, MN);• University of Heidelberg, Zoological Institute, Aquatic Ecotoxicology, Germany;• Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (Schmallenberg) Germany;• ECT Ecotoxicology (Flörsheim), Germany;• Laboratory for Aquatic Organisms, Bayer CropScience (Monheim), Germany;• DHI Water & Environment, Environmental Risk Assessment (Hørsholm), Denmark, who assisted the OECD Secretariat in finalising the Detailed Review Paper; • Schering AG, Experimental Toxicology (Berlin), Germany;• University of Southern Denmark, Institute of Biology (Odenske), Denmark;• European Commission, ECB European Chemicals Bureau (Ispra) Italy;• Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques (Verneuil-en-Halatte), France;• CEFAS -Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, United Kingdom;• Department of the Army Corps of Engineers, United States;• Waterways Experiment Station, Environmental Laboratory (Vicksburg/MS, US). ENV/JM/MONO(2004)18 13 PREAMBLEIn 1998, a Task Force on Endocrine Disrupter Testing and Assessment (EDTA) was established at the request of OECD member countries. The EDTA Task Force is a Special Activity of the Test Guidelines Programme and its main objectives are to:identify the needs and prioritize the development of new and enhanced guidelines for the detection and characterization of endocrine disrupting chemicals;• develop a harmonized testing strategy for the screening and testing of endocrine disrupters;• manage validation work for newly developed and enhanced Test Guidelines as appropriate;and, • provide practical tools for sharing testing results and assessments.The need for new and updated test methods to detect and characterise endocrine disrupting chemicals has been expressed by the Task Force for the assessment of human health effects and environmental effects. At early meetings of the EDTA Task Force, it appeared that existing OECD Test Guidelines would insufficiently cover for endocrine-related effects, especially for the environment. Member countries decided to list test methods which could potentially cover effects of chemicals on the reproductive system (estrogen agonists/antagonists and androgen agonists/antagonists) and on the development (thyroid system), and proposed enhancements where needed. Fish screening assays have been developed for the detection of (anti-) estrogenic and (anti-)androgenic compounds in oviparous animals living in aquatic ecosystems, as there is good evidence that fish in the field are being impacted by endocrine active substances. This Detailed Review Paper (DRP) is...