A COMPARISON OF THE TOXICITY OF 30 REFERENCE CHEMICALS TO DAPHNIA-MAGNA AND DAPHNIA-PULEX

To determine whether significant differences exist in the sensitivity of different Daphnia species to toxicants, the acute toxicity of the first 30 MEIC (multicenter evaluation of in vitro cytotoxicity) reference chemicals was determined in two species of Daphnia: D. magna and D. pulex. Correlation and regression analysis of the EC50 data for immobilization showed a very good concordance (r = 0.97, slope = 1.02). A comparison between the EC50 data obtained for D. magna by two laboratories independently for the 50 MEIC chemicals also showed a good concordance (r = 0.93, slope = 0.91). In both comparisons the regression line did not differ significantly from the regression line for a 1:1 regression. We conclude that our study, including a set of reference chemicals, indicates there is no difference in the overall sensitivity of the two Daphnia species and the two clones of D. magna.