Impact of Some Heavy Metals Toxicity on Behaviour, Biochemical and Histopathological Alterations in Adult Rats

Abstract

A nimal welfare is an issue not only for veterinary science and animal psychology but also for biochemical, agriculture, zoology and companion animal fields because animal welfare is a socially constructed idea and it is not a permanently fixed idea (Watanabe, 2007). On the other hand, animals are very good indicator of environmental pollution as they inhabit the same space as human and exposed to action of the same pollutants, for that reason it is appropriate and advantageous to evaluate the negative impact of the polluted environment by heavy metals on human health by parallel evaluation of their load on animals (Kozak et al., 2002).Lead is a one of the major heavy metals known to be toxic to mammals. It had many sources as metallic lead present in storage batteries, paints and rubbish dumps in areas near lead industrial establishments and also from the industrial applications especially the addition of vast quantities of research Article Abstract | Animal welfare is a matter of societal concern and debate, its improvement should consider those aspects actually affecting animal's health, through determining their impact on some welfare indicators, so, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of heavy metals toxicity on behavioural, biochemical and histopathological changes in adult rats. Twenty-five Sprague-Dawley adult rats were allotted into five groups, each of 5, two groups (GA & GB) treated with lead acetate (low 1g/l & high 2g/l) and another two (GC & GD) treated with anhydrous aluminium chloride (low 2 g/l & high 3.5 g/l) in drinking water daily for 5 weeks, while, GE (control) received drinking water without any treatment. The findings obtained indicated that feeding time, drinking, cage and total exploration frequencies increased in GB than other groups, although, lying time decreased. However, the movement activities increased in GA than others. On the other hand, glucose level decreased significantly in GB than GD and control. Furthermore, triglycerides and total lipid levels were significantly decreased in all treated groups than control. It was also revealed that the serum ALT increased significantly in GB than other groups while creatinine decreased significantly in both groups (GA & GB) treated with lead acetate than other groups with most decrement in high dose group of lead acetate. However, the urea level decreased and uric acid increased significantly in all treated groups than control. Microscopically, degenerated and necrotic hepatocytes, tubular and glomerulus's necrosis were observed in all toxicated rats beside eosinophilic intranuclear inclusions in lining epithelium of some renal tubules of lead toxicated rats. Therefore, it can be concluded that different toxic levels of lead acetate and aluminum chloride can affect animal's welfare by behavioural, biochemical and histopathological alterations in a dose dependent manner. Keywords

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