1.19 Questionable suitability of OECD 237 protocol in risk assessment scheme?

Persistent xenobiotics are potentially hazardous for the bee larvae despite that they are not directly exposed in contrary to adult foraging bees. The crucial phase of larval development is the first six days after hatching when young larva grows exponentially and during this phase larvae are potentially exposed to xenobiotics via diet. That is why the life cycle of honeybee is still a great challenge for scientists. OECD reflected “this need” and adopted the OECD 237 protocol (Honey bee (Apis mellifera) larval toxicity test, single exposure) on 26th July 2013. The protocol addresses the requirements formulated by the United States, Canada, and Europe to test the toxicity of chemicals compounds on larvae fed with spiked food under laboratory conditions in a tier1 strategy.Persistent xenobiotics are potentially hazardous for the bee larvae despite that they are not directly exposed in contrary to adult foraging bees. The crucial phase of larval development is the first six days after hatching when young larva grows exponentially and during this phase larvae are potentially exposed to xenobiotics via diet. That is why the life cycle of honeybee is still a great challenge for scientists. OECD reflected “this need” and adopted the OECD 237 protocol (Honey bee (Apis mellifera) larval toxicity test, single exposure) on 26th July 2013. The protocol addresses the requirements formulated by the United States, Canada, and Europe to test the toxicity of chemicals compounds on larvae fed with spiked food under laboratory conditions in a tier1 strategy

The use of parasites as bioindicators of pesticide exposure

Organisms used in risk assessment of pesticides must be the most sensitive ones to pesticides exposure. The aim of this study was to observe the effect of two commercial pesticide products (containing glyphosate and tolylfluanid) to larval stages of parasites Cooperia curticei, Ostertagia circumcincta, Haemonchus contortus and Trichostrongylus axei. There were two concentrations tested for each product vs. control group. Larvae (500 individuals/Petri dish) were incubated at 27 °C and observed daily for 42 days