engleski

Assessment of Metals and Metalloids in Streams and Tissues of Wild Boar in Papuk Nature Parke Area

Cadmium and lead are the most common toxic pollutants in the liver and kidney of wild boar. In order to assess the heavy metal and metalloid burden on Papuk Nature Park area the concentrations of As, B, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb and U in wild boar muscle, liver, and kidney samples were analyzed at five sampling locations. This area is chosen due to low influence of industry, the absence of agricultural activities and traffic, so it was reasonable to expect very low levels of metals and metalloids in these animals. The results of ICP-MS analysis showed that wild boar tissues accumulated the highest Cd and Pb concentrations, with Cd and Pb occurring in higher concentrations in kidney (Cdmax.=7.5 mg kg- 1), liver (Cd max. =12.2 mg kg-1) and in muscle tissue (Pbmax.=9.1 mg kg-1). The concentrations of these metals above permitted levels suggested that there is a good reason to investigate possible source of contamination. In order to investigate the possible cause of high metal concentrations in wild boar tissues the 20 samples of water were collected from five streams (Pištanska Rijeka, Šumećica, Leštat, Radlovačka Rijeka, Babina Rijeka). Slightly elevated concentrations of Pb in water according to EU legislation on the quality of water intendend for human consumption were found in only one sample from the northern part of Papuk (11.2 µg L-1). The cadmium concentrations in all investigated water samples were low and ranged from 0.09 to 0.7 µg L-1. The concentration of other elements covered by the EU directive (As, B, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Sb and U) were also below permitted values. From the results of the analysis we conclude that the streams and rivers of the Papuk Nature Park are not influenced by anthropogenic factors and the water used by wild animals did not affect the high concentrations of heavy metals in wild boars tissues.

Water, heavy metal and mettaloids, Papuk, wild boar, Croatia

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