Animal Studies for Crop Protection Products
Why are pesticides necessary at all?
Without pesticides, an additional 970 million hectares would be needed to feed a growing world population - equivalent to more than half the territory of the USA.
Even with crop protection products, 40 percent of the annual harvest is lost to weeds, insects and diseases.
Without fungicides, which protect plants from diseases, yields in fruit and vegetable cultivation would fall by 50 to 95 percent in most cases.
Why does agriculture need innovation?
Farmers are dependent on innovations in order to produce more with fewer resources (land, fuel, fertilizer). This is the only way they can meet global demand.
Global trends such as population growth, rising incomes in emerging countries, changing eating habits, increasingly erratic weather conditions and climate change are making the demands ever greater.
We are taking this development very seriously. That is why we are investing around one billion euros a year and employing 5,500 researchers to tackle the most urgent challenges facing agriculture.
How does Bayer ensure that crop protection products are safe for humans?
All approved products are safe for humans and the environment when used properly in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.pesticides are among the most intensively tested chemicals. Before a product is launched on the market, it is usually tested for 10 years and the results are examined in detail by independent government agencies around the world.
Crop protection products help to produce safe, healthy and affordable food.
Development costs and duration of a crop protection product:
The development of a crop protection product costs around 250 million euros and takes 10-14 years.
Strict rules apply to the use of plant protection products
Plant protection products are among the most thoroughly tested products in the world. Before they are used in the field, they are subjected to strict testing procedures and an independent review of the data by government agencies.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety assessment requires more than 100 toxicological and ecological tests to rule out any unacceptable risks to human health or the environment when used properly.
Crop Science is committed to providing farmers with innovative and safe crop protection solutions. The aim must therefore be to protect plants from crop damage caused by weeds, insects and fungi and - if this is not possible - to treat them as quickly as possible if an infestation is detected in the field or on the plants.
But no matter how effective a potential crop protection product is in safeguarding the harvest, its safety for humans is paramount.
The identification and selection of effective herbicides, insecticides and fungicides is carried out directly on weeds and plants infested with harmful insects and pathogens. The pesticides take effect by interfering with the biochemical processes of the weeds, insects or fungi.
Once efficacy has been established, the safety of the new candidates for humans is the top priority: this means safety for employees in production and users in agriculture, but also safety for consumers who may come into contact with residues or degradation products in their daily food and in the environment.
Animal testing for Bayer's Crop Science Division
Before a crop protection product from Bayer can be used, it must first be tested on animals. Find out why animal testing is necessary to ensure that new products are safe for humans and the environment.
What role do animal studies play?
The safety of plant protection products is tested in various toxicological studies in which animals (mainly rats and mice) are used. Most of these tests are required by law for market authorization.
Nowadays, bioinformatics and in-vitro models are increasingly being used instead of animal testing to gain initial insights into newly developed molecules. With these modern tools, a large number of substances can be tested without the use of animals and a considerable amount of data can be obtained. In this way, substances that are found to have undesirable properties are eliminated before they are even tested on animals. This means that fewer laboratory animals are required.
Only substances with a favorable safety profile are subjected to a large number of toxicity tests, primarily on rats and mice (general toxicity, reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity). These are necessary to rule out such side effects of the active substance. Such animal tests are required by law before a substance is approved in a country and are also essential because - unlike with medicines - it is not possible to administer crop protection products directly to humans in clinical trials.