<i>Artemia</i> in aquatic toxicology: a review

Due to commercial availability of dried cysts from which live test material can be hatched at will, Artemia is used extensively in research and applied toxicology.Despite the extensive literature on dose-effect relationships of chemicals on brine shrimp, it was not until 1980 that an experimental protocol was developed for a simple acute toxicity test with Artemia nauplii, meeting the prerequisites for standardization.The reliability and accuracy of this short-term test were determined during an intercalibration exercise involving 80 laboratories and were found to be quite satisfactory. Consequently, the so-called ARC-test, which is one of the very few standardized marine toxicity tests, is now used routinely at the international level. Recent research on the use of the Artemia in ecotoxicology has focused on the development of testing procedures and screening bioassays with sublethal responses. The medical, drug, and food sectors seem to use Artemia assays as frequently as laboratories investigating environmental concerns. Toxicity tests with brine shrimp have a significant potential in QSAR research because of their simplicity, rapidity, and cost-effectiveness. Artemia tests have also a good predictive potential as alternatives for other crustacean test species.This review postulates the future role of Artemia tests in aquatic toxicology to be that of a reference or quality control in rapid screening tests, as much as that of a predictor of chemical effects on species in marine environments