Wild boar (Sus scrofa) as bioindicator for environmental exposure to organic pollutants

Abstract

Organic pollutants (OPs) are widely distributed around the globe, their presence has become an issue of great concern in the last years due to their potential health effects. Wildlife biomonitoring of OPs has been nowadays a common approach to assess chemical exposure in wildlife and humans. In a sample of 60 wild boars (Sus scrofa) from NW Spain, we evaluated the suitability of using liver and hair samples for the assessment of exposure and bioaccumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) including dioxin and non-dioxin like PCBs (DLPCBs and NDLPCBs), organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides (OCPs and OPPs, respectively), polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs), pyrethroids (PYRs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Selective pressurized liquid extraction (SPLE) and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) methodologies were used to determine the target OPs in liver and hair samples. Clean-up of extracts was performed by solid-phase extraction (SPE) using EZ-POP cartridges and detection by gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC-QqQ-MS/MS). We found a distribution pattern of ΣPAHs > ΣOCPs > ΣPYRs > ΣNDLPCBs > ΣOPPs > ΣDLPCBs > ΣPBDEs in liver and of ΣPAHs > ΣOCPs > ΣNDLPCBs > ΣPYRs > ΣOPPs > ΣDLPCBs > ΣPBDEs in hair. Significant correlations (p < 0.050) between the socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age and place) and OP concentrations of OCPs, PBDEs, PYRs, OPPs and PAHs were detected. Moderate correlation was found between HCB, PCB28, PCB157 and chlorpyrifos contents in both hair and liver samples. On the basis of these results, our data shows the correlation and complementary information given by both biological samples.