Title of the manuscript: Pesticide residue levels on crop seeds as diet for birds and mammals after foliar applications at late growth stages.

Crop seeds that are formed on seed-bearing crops at late growth stages are a potential diet item of birds and mammals feeding in agricultural landscapes and may carry pesticide residues. This potential exposure route for birds and mammals is thus part of the European risk assessment framework for pesticide risk assessment. For assessing the risk, estimated residue concentrations on crop seeds are needed, which are typically expressed as RUD (Residue-per-Unit-Dose) values. However, proposed RUD values for seeds as given in relevant EU guidance documents were often not derived from actual crop seeds and are generally based on outdated data with unclear relevance for regulatory purposes. The objective of this work was to provide reliable crop seed RUD values representative for EU conditions and modern pesticides. For this purpose, industry field study data on crop seed residue levels for various pesticides resulting from spray application to crops at late growth stages were gathered and evaluated. This new, large data set is based on 178 residue trials and provides crop-specific data for cereals, sunflower, oilseed rape and pulses. The analysis revealed significantly lower RUD values across crops compared to current default values for use in wildlife risk assessment.