2004 Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 113-121
A rapid toxicity test based on the movement of the trunk limbs of Daphnia was developed using Daphnia pulex. A decrease in the frequency of the trunk limb movement by exposure to toxicants was measured. In developing the test method, the effects of food condition, body size, temperature management and exposure period on the movement of the trunk limbs were examined. The food condition did not affect the frequency of the trunk limb movement, provided that the Daphnia were removed from the breeding vessel after one or two days from feeding. Although the frequency tended to slightly decrease with the increase in body size, the ratio of the frequency after and before testing was not affected by the body size. Controlling the temperature at 20°C was helpful for improving the reproducibility. Considering the labor to manually count the trunk limb movements, the test period was 3 hours. Although this test was less sensitive than the Daphnia Immobilization Test, it was considered that this test may possibly be used to evaluate the ecotoxicity of wastewater and/or solid waste as a screening test.
