What happens after the LD50 is used on animals?
LD50 is a toxicological term which stands for Lethal Dose 50%. It tells you how much of a substance is required to kill half of the test subjects. The units are usually mg/kg (or g/kg or ug/kg depending on the toxicity). You need these units to correct for the weight of the animals used in the study. It takes more of the substance to kill a big rat vs. a small rat. If you give the LD50 dose to an animal there’s a 50% chance it will die. Even if it doesn’t die, it could become really sick.
