Bioaccumulation of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) infected with liver flukes (Fasciola gigantica)

College

College of Science

Department/Unit

Biology

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Oriental Journal of Chemistry

Volume

33

Issue

4

First Page

1684

Last Page

1688

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Abstract

© 2017, Oriental Scientific Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Exposure of living organisms to heavy metals can lead to bioaccumulation and can have some detrimental health effects. This study identified the species of liver flukes present in the liver tissues of water buffaloes, determined the concentration and bioconcentration factor of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc present in both the liver tissues and liver flukes using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Of the 1,329 liver flukes extracted from the 14 livers, Fasciola gigantica (F. gigantica) was the only species present in the collected liver tissues. The median heavy metal concentrations (µg/g) in the liver tissues were 0.93, 9.13, 4.75, and 48.95 for cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, respectively. F. gigantica had median heavy metal concentrations (µg/g) of 3.32, 72.26, 20.82, and 159.37 for cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, respectively. Both the liver tissues and F. gigantica were identified to contain varying concentrations of these heavy metals (p<0.05). The presence of these heavy metals in both the liver tissues and F. gigantica suggests heavy metal contamination of the areas where the carabaos graze. The bioconcentration factors for cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc were greater than 1.0 indicating that liver flukes are good bioaccumulators and bioindicators of environmental pollution.

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Digitial Object Identifier (DOI)

10.13005/ojc/330412

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