Ordering birds and mammals by their sensitivity to chemical compounds: a principal component analysis of acute toxicity data

In this study the variation in sensitivity of birds and mammals for pesticides is analyzed. It is part of a project aimed at the development of Quantitative Species-Sensitivity Relationships (QSSRs). A statistical technique is used to detect sensitivity patterns in sets of acute toxicity data of birds and mammals. As in previous studies, patterns in compound toxicity are less complex than patterns in species sensitivity. Ranking of compounds by their over all species averaged toxicity explains most of the variation in the data set. Sensitivity differences within the birds and mammals are limited. For risk assessment purposes this indicates that testing of more than one bird or mammal will have little influence on the outcome of the final assessment, due to other sources of uncertainty in the assessment procedures