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ibacon Participates in HYBIT Ring Test

26th November 2020

The bioconcentration factor (BCF) is used as a decision criterion for the bioaccumulation potential of chemicals, and it is usually determined by the aqueous exposure study in fish according to OECD test guideline 305. This guideline describes the standard procedure for deriving an in-vivo fish BCF. The test procedure is time consuming and requires many animals.

The potential of the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca as test organism for regulatory bioaccumulation studies has been discussed in the literature for a long time and a bioconcentration test with H. azteca has been developed as an alternative test method. Literature data indicate that the BCF obtained in this test can be used to assess chemicals as bioaccumulative or non-bioaccumulative in accordance with the fish BCF values.

H. Azteca is an amphipod native to North and Central America. The organisms are often used for ecotoxicological studies because they can be easily cultured in the laboratory, they are available during the entire year and have a high reproduction rate and fast growth.

A test protocol for the investigation of the BCF with H. Azteca under standardized conditions (HYBIT) has been developed. The protocol includes both flow‐through and semi-static test designs. Validation of the test protocol is currently accomplished during an inter-laboratory comparision test (ring test).

ibacon is supporting the 3R’s principle (replacement, reduction and refinement) regarding animal tests. We see the huge potential of this new test method and we are proud to participate at the ring test. With the support of Fraunhofer IME laboratory (Schmallenberg, Germany), breeding of H. azteca was established and one out of two BCF tests is currently running using the flow through test design.

 

References:

LRI-ECO40: Investigations on the bioconcentrations of xenobiotics in the freshwater amphipod Hyalella Azteca and inter-laboratory comparison of a new BCF test protocol. http://cefic-lri.org/projects/eco-40-investigations-on-the-bioconcentrat...

Schlechtriem, Christian & Kampe, Sebastian & Bruckert, Hans-Jörg & Bischof, Ina & Ebersbach, Ina & Kosfeld, Verena & Kotthoff, Matthias & Schäfers, Christoph & L’Haridon, Jacques. (2019). Bioconcentration studies with the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca: are the results predictive of bioconcentration in fish? Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2019) 26:1628–1641.

Comparison of Alternative Methods for Bioaccumulation Assessment: Scope and Limitations of In Vitro Depletion Assays with Rainbow Trout and Bioconcentration Tests in the Freshwater Amphipod Hyalella Azteca; Verena Kosfeld, Qiuguo Fu, Ina Ebersbach, Dana Esser, Anna Schauerte, Ina Bischof, Juliane Hollender, and Christian Schlechtriem, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry—Volume 39, Number 9—pp. 1813–1825, 2020.