World's first OECD zebrafish embryo test project begins

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said that the National Institute of Environmental Research began the world's first Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) project on Aug. 20 to validate a zebrafish embryo test expected to cut costs to one-fiftieth of conventional animal tests.

An OECD working group unanimously approved the joint validation research at an April meeting in Paris. Earlier OECD-approved alternatives assessed skin and eye irritation and phototoxicity, rather than neurodevelopmental toxicity.

The test exposes fertilized embryos to chemicals and observes their responses and brain tissue without using rodents. Toxicity screening is expected to be more than 10 times faster than conventional animal testing.

Under advanced-country standards, assessing a single substance under the existing OECD rodent guideline can require about 1,000 animals, take three years and cost about 1 billion won ($717,875) or more. The institute will work with neurodevelopmental-toxicity experts to examine accuracy, sensitivity and reproducibility as it seeks inclusion in OECD test guidelines by 2031.

"The alternative test for neurodevelopmental toxicity now being developed will substantially reduce the time and cost of assessing the tens of thousands of chemicals distributed in South Korea, lower regulatory burdens for industry at home and abroad, and provide a practical way to screen toxicity quickly and protect the public," Park Yeon-jae said.