engleski

Plasma ochratoxin A in the European brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) from Croatia

The European brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) is the largest terrestrial mammal in Croatia. Although known as omnivorous species, almost 95% of the brown bear's diet in Croatia consists of plants. Maize is the important part of bear's diet due to its availability at supplemental feeding sites and the bear's opportunistic feeding habits. This supplemental maize is often of poor quality to begin with and is further adulterated by weather conditions. Some of the molds that readily contaminate damaged maize grains produce potentially carcinogenic mycotoxins, such as ochratoxin A (OTA), which accumulates in the plasma, kidney, or liver in species specific way. The aim of our study was to assess OTA levels in the brown bear. We collected eight blood samples of bears in 2016, one of which was from the Zagreb Zoo, one from a bear shelter in Kuterevo, and the remaining were wild bears caught for telemetry research. OTA was determined in plasma with immunoaffinity colums and HPLC with a fluorescence detector. The shelter bear and one wild bear had much higher OTA levels (18.7 and 32.61 ng/mL, respectively) than the rest of the bears (ranging from 2.05 to 6.62 ng/mL). As this is the first report on plasma OTA levels in the European brown bear (average 9.89 ng/mL) we compared them with reports on Polish wild boars and found that they were similar.

Plasma, Ochratoxin A, Brown bear

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