Abstract
The consumption of traditional foods, including moose, is vitally important to Canada’s indigenous communities for dietary, social, and cultural reasons. Cadmium is a key contaminant of concern in moose as it accumulates primarily the organs, with the kidney accumulating more than the liver. The objectives of this study were to identify relationships between cadmium concentrations in the kidney, liver and muscle tissue of moose, and to estimate benchmark consumption quantities that are associated with minimal health risk for three First Nation communities: the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation, the Swan River First Nation and Cold Lake First Nations. Moose quality studies were conducted with the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation in 2012, the Swan River First Nation in 2014 and the Cold Lake First Nations in 2016, all located in Alberta, Canada. The measured cadmium tissue concentrations from these studies were found to be comparable to those reported in the 2016 Alberta First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study and other North American studies. The results of our study suggest that linear relationships exist between cadmium concentrations in kidney and liver tissue, which can be used as a tool to predict organ concentrations in moose from northern Alberta. First Nations communities can use this information to predict cadmium tissue concentrations in both kidney and liver in the absence of actual, measured cadmium concentrations. Benchmark consumption quantities that are associated with minimal risk were estimated for the different tissue types.
Highlights
The consumption of moose muscle and organ tissue is of high dietary, social, and cultural significance to First Nations communities in Canada
The study provided cadmium tissue concentrations for 50 moose harvested by three First Nations communities in northern Alberta
The results show that the measured concentrations of cadmium in moose muscle and organs in each of the Cold Lake First Nations (CLFN), Swan River First Nation (SRFN) and Chipewyan Prairie Déné First Nation (CPDFN) studies are comparable to those tissue concentrations reported in the 2016 Alberta FNFNES and other North American studies
Summary
The consumption of moose muscle and organ tissue is of high dietary, social, and cultural significance to First Nations communities in Canada. Since it is traditional for individuals to consume the majority of a harvested animal, First Nation hunters and harvesters may have exposure to higher levels of contaminants than their non-Indigenous counterparts. This is because organ meats, especially the liver and kidney, typically have higher concentrations of inorganic elements than muscle tissue. The cadmium concentrations in moose tissues were measured, as part of larger studies, to characterize the tissue quality of moose (muscle, kidney, and liver) harvested from the First Nations’ traditional territories in north central and northeastern Alberta.
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