Abstract
Background: Foliage residue decline data are used to refine the risk assessment for herbivorous birds and mammals foraging in fields treated with plant protection products. For evaluation, current EFSA guidance has a clear focus on single-first order (SFO) kinetic models. However, other kinetic models are well established in other areas of environmental risk evaluations (eg, soil residue assessment), and easy-to-use calculation tools have become available now. We provide case studies with 6 fungicides how such evaluations can be conducted with two of these tools (KinGUII and TREC) that have been developed by Bayer.Results: SFO kinetics provided the best fits only for 12 of 36 residue decline studies conducted in a standardized design under field conditions. Biphasic models (double first order in parallel, hockey stick) were often superior and sometimes more conservative for risk assessment. The additional effort is manageable when using KinGUII and TREC, and appears justified by the more reliable outcome of the evaluations.Conclusions: Further research would be useful to better assess the extent to which non-SFO better fits foliage residue decline, but our study suggests that it may be a significant proportion. Therefore we encourage the use of biphasic models in the regulatory risk assessment for herbivorous birds and mammals, in the ongoing revision of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidance document from 2009.
Risk Assessment for Birds and Mammals ‐ Revision of Guidance Document under Council Directive 91/414/EEC (SANCO/4145/2000 – final of 25 September 2002) ‐ Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Plant protection products and their Residues (PPR) on the Science behind the Guidance Document on Risk Assessment for birds and mammals
