Abstract
Most of the currently used toxicity assays for environmental chemicals use acute or chronic systemic or reproductive toxicity endpoints rather than neurobehavioral endpoints. In addition, the current standard approaches to assess reproductive toxicity are time-consuming. Therefore, with increasing numbers of chemicals being developed with potentially harmful neurobehavioral effects in higher vertebrates, including humans, more efficient means of assessing neuro- and reproductive toxicity are required. Here we discuss the use of a Galliformes-based avian test battery in which developmental toxicity is assessed by means of a combination of chemical exposure during early embryonic development using an embryo culture system followed by analyses after hatching of sociosexual behaviors such as aggression and mating and of visual memory via filial imprinting. This Galliformes-based avian test battery shows promise as a sophisticated means not only of assessing chemical toxicity in avian species but also of assessing the risks posed to higher vertebrates, including humans, which are markedly sensitive to nervous or neuroendocrine system dysfunction.
Highlights
Avian experimental models are an important tool for elucidating fundamental principles in research fields such as embryology, endocrinology, genetics, neurology, and ethology (Le Douarin, 2004; Stern, 2005; Emery, 2006; Nakamori et al, 2013)
It has been suggested that similarities exist between mammals and birds in the sex differentiation of core sexual behaviors that is induced by gonadal hormones during embryonic
Clayton and Emery (2015) have proposed that avian experimental models for human cognition could be adapted for studying the neural basis of complex cognition; reasoning, e.g., mean flexibility, problem solving, prospection, and declarative knowledge, and understanding the evolution and neurobiology of cognition, e.g. specific cognitive functions and critical roles of the avian and mammalian brain
Summary
Avian experimental models are an important tool for elucidating fundamental principles in research fields such as embryology, endocrinology, genetics, neurology, and ethology (Le Douarin, 2004; Stern, 2005; Emery, 2006; Nakamori et al, 2013). To allow more detailed evaluation of the neuro- and reproductive toxicities of environmental chemicals, new neurobehavioral endpoints in avian test models, such as sex differentiation in the gonads and brain, need to be established.
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