As a fundamental study for chronic test (definitive test), the range finding test must have been done prior to conducting chronic test. The aims of this study were 1) to search the effective concentration range of two different heavy metals (cadmium and nickel) to indigenous collembolan species (Paranura rosea) 2) to compare the toxicity of cadmium and nickel depending on exposure durations. Toxicity tests were conducted in accordance with the standardized toxicity test proposed by OECD. In this study, there were no mortality occurred at all test concentrations for 7-days exposure. In contrast to 7-days exposure, there were slight increases in mortalities were observed at the concentration higher than 400 mg/kg for both heavy metals for 14-days exposure. The estimated LC50s for cadmium and nickel were 3980.65 (2036.08-64668.61) and 1597.85 (1087.87-3817.61) mg/kg, respectively. The results of this study may be used as a fundamental toxicity data for two heavy metals to proceed in chronic test in the future study.

The aim of present experiment was to examine hatching rate as in vitro indicator of viability of porcine embryos before early stage embryo transfer such as zygotes or 2-cell stage embryos. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) collected from ovaries were matured in North Carolina State University 23 (NCSU-23) containing 10% porcine follicular fluid (pFF), 10 ng/ml epidermal growth factor (EGF), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and 1mg/ml cysteine. After 24 hours, the COCs were transferred to the same medium without hormones. After 65h of maturation, oocytes were exposed to phosphate buffered saline (PBS) with 7% ethanol (v/v) for 7 minutes, and then the oocytes were washed and cultured in tissue culture medium (TCM) 199 containing 5 ug/ml cytochalasin B for 5h at in an atmosphere of 5% and 95% air with high humidity. After cytochalasin B treatment, the presumptive parthenotes were cultured in porcine zygote medium (PZM)-5 and cleavage of the parthenotes was assessed at 72h of activation, Normally cleaved parthenotes were cultured for an additional 8 days to evaluate their ability to develop to blastocyst and hatching stages. The fetal bovine serum (FBS) were added at Day 4 or 5 with concentrations of 2.5, 5 or 10%. The blastocyst rates were ranged within in each treatment. However hatching rate was dramatically decreased in non-addition group. In this experiment, embryo viability in female reproductive tract may be estimated before embryo transfer with in vitro culture adding FBS by hatching ability.