Acute systemic toxicity

Use of the test that aimed to identify the single lethal dose of a substance that kills half the animals in a test group (the LD50 test) should finally be discontinued by the end of 2002, after many years of controversy and debate. In its stead are three recently developed alternative animal tests that significantly improve animal welfare: the fixed dose procedure, the acute toxic class method, and the up and down procedure. These tests have already undergone revision, both to improve their scientific performance and, importantly, to increase their regulatory acceptance. They can now be used within a strategy of acute toxicity testing for all types of test substances and for all regulatory and in-house purposes. In vitro cytotoxicity tests could be used (perhaps by mid-2002) as adjuncts to these alternative animal tests to improve dose level selection and reduce (at least modestly) the number of animals used. However, the total replacement of animal tests requires a considerable amount of further test development, followed by validation, which will require at least 10 yr.