ABSTRACT

Two important considerations have emerged in the discipline of toxicology that demand an extension of the limited testing protocols of the past. First, we have discovered that some animal species more closely mimic the human response than traditionally used laboratory animals [109]. Second, we recognize today the important implications for human health in the response to xenobiotics of wild animals in their own environments. Thus, the subdiscipline of ecotoxicology has emerged with its research emphasis on bioindicators of ecosystem health.