Bioaccumulation: Food Chain Implications

Environmental risk assessment increasingly requires an understanding of how substances might bioaccumulate in fish and other aquatic life, also taking into account patterns of metabolism and excretion.  This knowledge will be useful in building a knowledge base to use mammalian metabolic data to guide environmental bioaccumulation testing.  The following projects are examples of current work.

• Metabolism of cardiovascular APIs and physiological responses in fish.   Co-funded by Pfizer, this project is looking at how fish metabolise selected APIs (taking into account plasma levels of the API and key metabolites).  In tandem, biomarkers are being developed to allow the non-invasive monitoring of physiological responses in the heart and other tissues.
   
• Biomagnification and Critical Body Burdens.  Research is addressing how a range of organic substances can be magnified along simple experimental food chains (algae - molluscs - fish). Co-funded by the European Chemical Industry (CEFIC), further work is examining how Critical Body Burdens (CBBs) can be measured and interpreted in the context of toxicological endpoints (eg growth) in fish.