Guidelines to evaluate side-effects of plant protection products to non-target arthropods

Editors: Candolfi M.P., Blümel S., Forster R., Bakker F.M., Grimm C., Hassan S.A., Heimbach U., Mead-Briggs M.A., Reber B., Schmuck R., Vogt H., 2000
ISBN: 92-9067-129-7 [IX + 158 pp.]
Free download for IOBC-WPRS Members.

Side effect testing on terrestrial non-target arthropods (NTA) for registration of plant protection products in the European Union (EU) is currently conducted according to the Council Directive of 15th July 1991 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (91/414/EEC) (Council of the European Union, 1991, updated by the Commission Directive 96/12/EC, Council of the European Union, 1996). The directive refers to the first SETAC/ESCORT Guidance Document on regulatory testing procedures for pesticides with non-target arthropods (Barrett et al., 1994) and to the EPPO/CoE Arthropod Natural Enemies Risk Assessment Scheme (EPPO, 1994) for non-target arthropod testing methodology and risk assessment, respectively. The SETAC/ESCORT Guidance document and the EPPO risk assessment scheme are currently being updated and should provide a simplified and better tuned tiered testing and assessment procedure which optimises the data requirements and gives realistic decision criteria and trigger values for both in-field and off-field risk assessments (Candolfi et al., 2001; EPPO, 2001).
The above mentioned guidelines and guidance documents outline the basic testing principles however, they do not provide detailed description of testing methodology. Therefore, IOBC, BART and EPPO decided in 1994 to set up a Joint Initiative (JI) with the aim to develop and validate test methods to assess side-effects of plant protection products to nontarget arthropods for registration purposes. The activities of the JI started in 1995 with the creation of several working
groups for the development and standardization of testing procedures. Interim reports of the working groups (list of working groups is presented below) were presented at an international conference in 1996 (Ecotoxicology, Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms, Cardiff, UK, 14-16 October 1996) and published in 1998 (Haskell and McEwen, 1998). The JI also organized an international meeting held in Versailles (France) on the 25-26 October, 1999, with the aim of setting up general guidelines for semi-field and field testing. This resulted in the publication of a guidance document for regulatory testing and interpretation of semi-field and field studies with non-target arthropods (Candolfi et al., 2000).
The JI ring-testing activities were co-ordinated by a Steering Committee [M.P. Candolfi (BART representative, previously represented by S. Storck-Weyhermüller), S. Blümel (IOBC representative) and R. Forster (EPPO representative)] and the working group leaders were responsible for the development and validation of the test methods. 27 laboratories from agrochemical industry, regulatory authority, academia and contract research organisations participated in this validation exercise. Validation of the test methods was performed in the past 5 years by ring-testing the methods in several laboratories and/or using historical GLP data generated for registration purposes. The methods presented in this book describe the test system, treatments, validity criteria of the study, information on test organisms, test procedures, test conditions, biological observations, data analyses and reporting for selected terrestrial non-target arthropods.