Assessment of toxic heavy metals and trace elements in poultry feeds, consumer chickens and eggs in Bangladesh

Abstract

Considering the potential health hazardous effects, the distribution and deposition of heavy metals and trace elements including Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr, and Pb in different tissues (skin, brain, liver, meat, and bone) of broiler and layer chickens, their feeds, litter, and eggs were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) after nitric/perchloric acid digestion. The samples for this study were taken from four poultry industries located at Sreepur upazila of Gazipur district of Bangladesh. The observed levels of heavy metals and trace element contents in different studied samples were to be in the range of 0.143±0.001 to 7.324±0.004 mg/kg for Mn, below the detection limit (BDL) to 324.43±0.003 mg/kg for Fe, 0.451±0.002 to 4.329±0.005 mg/kg for Cu, 0.014±0.001 to 7.413±0.003 mg/kg for Zn, 0.082±0.002 to 7.806±0.002 mg/kg for Cr, 0.112±0.002 to 1.581±0.002 mg/kg for Cd, and BDL to 34.775±0.004 mg/kg for Pb. Although some elements were found at a lower concentration in feed samples, they were found at a higher level in various parts of the examined chickens, eggs, and litter which may be resulted from other sources such as drinking water, soil, and the surrounding environment of the poultry industries. The brain contained a maximum amount of Cd, Cr, and Pb in comparison to other studied tissues of poultry. Most of the chicken body parts showed an excess level of Cr than the recommended guidelines. The Cu and Zn contents were usual in studied egg samples, whereas Mn, Fe, Cd, Cr, and Pb were found higher than their tolerance limits which are highly alarming for public health and demand regular governance and monitoring. Asian Australas. J. Biosci. Biotechnol. 2021, 6 (3), 128-141

Evaluation of proximate compositions and heavy metal concentrations of Amaranthus spinosus L. and Talinum fruticosum (L.) Juss. harvested on some poultry dumpsites in Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria

“…Reduction in soil metallic compositions (Co, Cr and Cu) was observed in the soil samples from the three poultry dumpsites except cadmium, which was above FAO/WHO (2011) permitted levels for agricultural soils, and this have been attributed to translocation of metallic nutrients from the soil to the plants via root absorption and their bioremediation mechanism (Chibuike and Obiora, 2014;Singh et al, 2016;Netshiongolwe et al, 2020). Also, it was further supported by Chowdhury et al (2021) that the feeds fed to poultry birds might contained more cadmium than other heavy metals or due to contamination from other sources and subsequent evident in their concentration in the soil. However, soils tested were also found to be within accepted limits for agricultural soils for some metals like Co, Cr and Cu, and this have been reported, showing that the soil is suitable for planting as reported by Ebong et al (2007).…”

“…Each vegetable had variable levels of heavy metals in roots and leaves, and this shows their differential build-up capacity, as seen in the overall results of the heavy metals' concentration. This may be attributed to a wide range of deposition mechanisms, leaching rates, and surface water flow and the incorporation from the feeds fed to the birds and subsequently excreted and accumulated in the plants and soils of poultry dumpsites (Adefila et al, 2010;Suleiman et al, 2015;Ukpe and Chokor, 2018;Chowdhury et al, 2021). The maximum concentration of heavy metals accumulated by the two vegetables is found at the root of the plant in all places studied; and these findings are comparable to those documented by Ni et al (2004) and are likely owing to the sluggish movement of heavy metals from the roots to the shoot, which is because of the interplay between soil-plants and root-microbes.…”

“…Phosphate and nitrogen leaching and decomposition in the litter could cause eutrophication and unpleasant odors. Litter from poultry farms has been shown to include trace quantities of potentially hazardous metals like Arsenic, Cadmium, Copper, and Manganese (Subramanian and Gupta, 2006;Suleiman et al, 2015;Ukpe and Chokor, 2018;Chowdhury et al, 2021).…”

“…However, despite the rich medicinal and nutrient sources of these vegetables and the capacity of poultry manure to support the development of plants to supply essential nutrients to the consumers and provide higher renumeration to the farmers respectively. There has been suggested evidence of poultry manures being the sources of metallic and other pollutants to the plants (Adefila et al, 2015), possible interplay between contaminated feeds fed to the poultry birds and the level of contaminants in the plants ( Ukpe and Chokor, 2018;Chowdhury et al, 2021), and poverty and ignorance nature of the locals in picking vegetables such as Amaranthus spinosus and Talinum fruticosum from the wild and dumpsites in Lagos and other parts of the world (Oluwole et al, 2020) for consumption necessitated this study. This study therefore examined proximate compositions and heavy metals' accumulation in Amaranthus spinosus and Talinum fruticosum as well as soil samples obtained from three poultry disposal sites in Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria in a bid to discourage the consumption of vegetables growing on poultry dumpsites.…”

Human health risk assessment of edible body parts of chicken through heavy metals and trace elements quantitative analysis

“…In Bangladesh, the overall farm, including farms of broilers and layers, is estimated to be over 114763 [21]. Around 56% of them are concentrated in Dhaka [22]. These farms provide chickens to the DNCC kitchen markets.…”