Tail hair as an indicator of environmental exposure of cows to lead and cadmium in different industrial areas

This study examines the use of tail hair from cows as a possible biomarker of environmental exposure to lead and cadmium around different industrial areas. Respective blood and tail hair samples were collected from a total of 317 apparently healthy cows above 3 years of age. This includes 287 cows r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecotoxicology and environmental safety 2007, Vol.66 (1), p.127-131
Main Authors: Patra, R.C., Swarup, D., Naresh, Ram, Kumar, Puneet, Nandi, D., Shekhar, Pallav, Roy, S., Ali, S.L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Blood
Cadmium
Cadmium - analysis
Cadmium - blood
Cattle
Cow
Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution
Environmental Exposure
Environmental Pollutants - analysis
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Hair - chemistry
Industry
Lead
Lead - analysis
Lead - blood
Tail
Tail hair
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Summary:This study examines the use of tail hair from cows as a possible biomarker of environmental exposure to lead and cadmium around different industrial areas. Respective blood and tail hair samples were collected from a total of 317 apparently healthy cows above 3 years of age. This includes 287 cows reared in industrial and urban areas and 30 cows from areas free from polluting sources. Significantly ( P < 0.05 ) higher lead and cadmium residues were recorded in hair from cows reared around lead–zinc smelter and closed lead cum operational zinc smelter. However, cows from those areas had significantly ( P < 0.05 ) higher blood lead but not cadmium concentration as compared to respective control value. Although mean blood lead concentration in cows around aluminum processing plant and urban cum small industrial areas and that of cadmium around steel processing plant were significantly ( P < 0.05 ) higher than respective control, the mean hair lead and cadmium content remained statistically ( P > 0.05 ) comparable to that of respective control values. The blood lead was significantly correlated with hair lead ( r = 0.672 , P < 0.01 ) and cadmium ( r = 0.309 , P < 0.05 ) . There was a significant correlation between lead and cadmium concentration ( r = 0.610 , P < 0.01 ) in hair and a nonsignificant correlation between blood and hair cadmium suggesting that cadmium accumulation in hair was influenced by blood and hair lead concentrations in cows environmentally exposed to lead.
ISSN:0147-6513
1090-2414
DOI:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2006.01.005