The Dung Organism Toxicity Testing (DOTTS) Advisory
Group was established to exchange information about testing the effects
of veterinary drugs on dung organisms; to develop test protocols for
toxicity testing with dung flies and dung beetles; and to perform ring
tests with dung flies and dung beetles in order to standardise and
validate the test protocols.
Much of this work was completed in
2006. The OECD has accepted the dung fly guideline “Determination of
Developmental Toxicity of a Test Chemical to Dipteran Dung Flies
(Scathophaga stercoraria L. (Scathophagidae), Musca autumnalis De Geer
(Muscidae)” as prepared by DOTTS for review by OECD member states. In
the future, the focus will be on preparing a guidance document for the
performance of dung beetle tests.
DOTTS ring testing: participating laboratories
- Amanda Sharples: Covance Laboratories Ltd., United Kingdom
- Jörg Römbke, Adam Scheffczyk: ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH, Germany
- Jörn Lehmhus, Silvio Knäbe: GAB Biotechnologie GmbH, Germany
- Katie Barrett, Jane Gray: Huntingdon Life Sciences, United Kingdom
- Boris Rosenkranz, Tatsuya Sekine: IBACON GmbH, Germany
- Thomas Schmidt: RCC Ltd., Switzerland
- Nicola Davies, James Murdock: CEM Analytical Services Ltd., United Kingdom
- Wolf Blanckenhorn: University of Zurich-Irchel, Switzerland
Jörg Römbke (Chair of the DOTTS advisory group)
“Technically
speaking, DOTTS has fulfilled the tasks it was founded for: to provide
industry and authorities with standard test guidelines with dung
organisms. While some experiences about the effects of antiparasitics
were available in the literature, no test guidelines were available
when test results were required for the registration of certain
veterinary pharmaceuticals. No organisation took the responsibility to
select the most appropriate test methods, to prepare draft guidelines,
to organise a ring test, to evaluate its results, and to help the
responsible organisation -in this case the OECD- during the
standardisation process. Obviously, an organisation like SETAC, and in
particular an advisory group, is needed in such a situation, where a
certain goal has to be reached in a limited time and without external
support. DOTTS combines resources, experiences, and flexibility – and
has proven that such an approach works.”
