Abstract
Due to environmental pollution, wild animals are exposed to various pollutants. Some game animals, such as wild boars are used by people for food, but their meat is not evaluated regarding pollution transfer, since they are unavailable on the official market. The aim of this paper is to present the concentrations of chosen metals (Cd, Co, Cu, Hg, Pb, and Zn) in the kidneys, liver, and muscles of wild boars (n = 40) hunted in eastern Slovakia, as derivatives of physiological distribution and anthropogenic pollution. We found that sex was not a statistically significant factor for metal concentrations. Tissue differences were observed for all the metals studied except for Co. Cd, Cu, and Hg showed the highest median concentrations in kidney tissue with the lowest in muscle tissue (2.73, 3.78, and 0.061 μg/g w.w., respectively). The highest Zn median concentration was noted in the liver tissue with the lowest in muscle tissue. Co and Cu concentrations varied according to the age groups. Correlations between metal concentrations in muscle and kidney tissue were not especially strong; such relationships were not found in liver tissue. Among all the potential relationships of the given metal concentrations between tissues, the only significant relationship, albeit weak, was noted for Pb in muscle and liver tissue. The concentrations found seem not to be extremely high, but according to EU maximum permitted residue levels for Cd and Pb concentrations in meat, none of the samples studied was fully fit for human consumption. TWI and risk was also excessive for both metals.
Highlights
Materials and MethodsMany communities in many parts of the world use the wild animals as a major ingredient in their diet [1, 2]
The main aim of this paper is to investigate the concentrations of selected metals some of which reflect the industrial impact on the ecosystem (cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn)) in the kidney, liver, and muscle tissue of wild-boars collected in southwestern Slovakia
We found higher Pb accumulation in muscle tissue than in kidney tissue, which was mentioned in the literature [26]
Summary
Many communities in many parts of the world use the wild animals as a major ingredient in their diet [1, 2]. The recent increase in wild boar populations has given rise to an intensification of hunting ( imposed by agriculture), which the consumption of boar meat has increased [16, 17] Metals, such as cadmium, mercury, lead, and zinc are inextricably linked to anthropogenic activity [18]. Metal concentrations were measured in the tissue of some wild animals, including wild boars from various parts of the world [20,21,22]. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the concentrations of selected metals some of which reflect the industrial impact on the ecosystem (cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn)) in the kidney, liver, and muscle tissue of wild-boars collected in southwestern Slovakia. All the calculations and analyses were done with Excel 2016 for Mac (Microsoft) and Statistica 12 (StatSoft)
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