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Mercury in pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) organs collected in the vicinity of the natural gas treatment plant in northern Croatia during the last ten years

Considering the risk of entry of mercury into the environment and food chain a comprehensive environmental monitoring program was conducted in the gas field Molve. Among other biomarkers, pheasant organs were analysed for total mercury concentration by ICP-MS method. The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of mercury in the collected samples from 2008 to 2018, monitor its changes over a last ten years period and assess its possible adverse impact on human and animal health. Adult pheasants (n=5) were collected during hunting season around natural gas treatment plant Molve 9, 10, 11 and 12. Total mercury is expressed in μg/g wet weight of the sample. Statistics were processed by Statistica 13.4 software. During the last ten years the range of the median mercury concentration values in pheasant organs were 0.0003-0.0015, 0.001-0.003, 0.0021- 0.005 and 0.0004-0.0016 μg/g for muscle, liver, kidney and brain, respectively. Median Hg in all organs slightly differ from year to year, but generally show consistent pattern in fluctuations, especially a slight decline in value over the last three years. Comparing our results with results from previous investigated period (1995-2008) we concluded that they show mainly consistency and slight decline in value, and that investigated area near Molve still belongs to low mercury contaminated region. In that context it can be stated that pheasant tissues as food are completely safe for human health. Results also point to that research and production of natural gas contaminated by mercury does not threaten human health and the environment.

pheasants ; total mercury ; natural gas ; environmental monitoring

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