Selected Heavy Metals And Their Risk Assessment In Camels (Camelus dromedarius)

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the residual levels of heavy metals (zinc, iron, copper, lead, and cadmium) in tissues (meat, liver and kidney), serum and hair of 3 camel breeds (Magaheem, Maghateer and Wadha) collected from Al-Omran slaughterhouse, eastern province, Saudi Arabia by using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer. Camel breed infuenced Zinc (Zn) accumulation and distribution in organs, muscle, and arranged in descending manner as follows: hair> liver> muscle > kidney> serum. The iron content in all male camel samples was considerably greater than in female camel. Furthermore, significant strong positive correlation between muscle and serum iron was established. All examined samples contained copper (Cu), the highest value was 17.78 ± 0.85 mg kg-1 detected in liver samples of Maghateer breed. The descending manner of Cu as follows: liver > muscle > hair > kidney > serum. In addition, the female liver contained significantly higher Cu than the male liver. Lead (Pb) residue was detected in all examined samples among different breeds except muscle samples of Maghateer and Magaheem breeds. The cadmium (Cd) values ranged from 0.0001 mg kg-1 in the muscle of the Maghateer breed to 4.5113 mg kg-1 in the hair of the Wadham breed. The meat and offal of all examined breeds contained lower Pb and Cd levels than the maximum permissible limit. The estimated daily intake (EDI) due to consumption of camel meat below the tolerable daily intake (TDI). In addition, the hazard ratio (HR) and hazard indices (HIs) values were far below one for adults.