Monitoring of the content of heavy metals and selenium in com-pound feeds for productive animals and poultry

Abstract

Currently, the issue of regulating the safety indicators of feed for productive animals and poultry in terms of technical regulation is in a regulatory vacuum, since the Technical Regulation "On the safety of feed and feed additives" has not been approved. This situation also applies to indicators of the content of toxic elements, which include selenium and heavy metals such as zinc, copper, iron, capable of accumulation in the body and migration through food chains. In connection with the above, the purpose of the research was to monitor and analyze the content of heavy metals and selenium in compound feeds for productive animals and poultry sold on the territory of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region as an indicator of toxicological safety.As part of the work, 40 samples of mixed feeds of domestic production were examined. The share of the studied compound feeds for pigs and piglets accounted for 50.0%, for broilers and cattle - 25.0% each. At the first stage, sample preparation and mineralization of samples were carried out in a muffle furnace. At the second stage, using the atomic absorption spectrometer Thermo Scientific Solaar S4, the amount of copper, zinc, iron, selenium in the mineralized sample was determined in accordance with the current regulatory documents. At the third stage, the results were analyzed in comparison with the temporary maximum permissible level according to MDU No. 123-4/281- 8-87 "Temporary maximum permissible level (MDU) of the content of certain chemical elements and gossypol in animal feed and feed additives".The detected concentrations of copper, iron and selenium in the studied samples met the requirements of the current regulatory documentation and did not exceed the established MDU. When determining zinc, it was revealed that 38 samples out of 40 met the requirements of regulatory documentation, in the remaining 2 samples, an excess of MDU was found to be 1.1 and almost 1.5 times, respectively. The obtained results of the monitoring studies allow us to draw a conclusion about the safety of compound feeds in terms of the content of heavy metals and selenium sold on the territory of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region