A multiannual survey of cadmium content in pig tissues collected in the Czech Republic during the years 2015–2019

Svoboda, Martin; Drápal, Jiří; Haruštiaková, Danka; Svobodová, Zdeňka

doi:10.2754/avb202089040349

Acta Veterinaria > Archive > 2020, Vol. 89 > Issue 4 > A multiannual survey of cadmium content…

Acta Vet. Brno 2020, 89: 349-355

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb202089040349

A multiannual survey of cadmium content in pig tissues collected in the Czech Republic during the years 2015–2019

Martin Svoboda¹, Jiří Drápal², Danka Haruštiaková^3,4, Zdeňka Svobodová⁵

¹University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ruminant and Swine Clinic, Brno, Czech Republic
²Central Veterinary Administration of the State Veterinary Administration, Prague, Czech Republic
³Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Brno, Czech Republic
⁴Masaryk University, Faculty of Science, Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Brno, Czech Republic
⁵University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, Department of Animal Protection and Welfare and Veterinary Public Health, Brno, Czech Republic

Received July 27, 2020
Accepted December 21, 2020

The assessment of cadmium content in the muscle, liver and kidneys of fattening pigs and sows was conducted in the Czech Republic during the period of 2015–2019. The samples were collected from a total of 32 sows and 210 fattening pigs. The mean cadmium content in the livers and kidneys of all sows was 0.102 ± 0.010 and 0.361 ± 0.032 mg·kg^-1, respectively. The mean cadmium content in the livers and kidneys of all fattening pigs was 0.028 ± 0.001 and 0.141 ± 0.005 mg·kg^-1, respectively. The maximum residual limit for human consumption was not exceeded in any sample. The cadmium content in the liver did not differ significantly between sows and fattening pigs in any particular year. In contrast, the cadmium content in kidneys differed significantly between sows and fattening pigs, being higher in sows (P < 0.05). No significant decreasing trend was observed for the cadmium content in tissues during the whole time period. It can be concluded that there is a need for further monitoring of the cadmium content in pig tissues in the Czech Republic.

Keywords

Heavy metals, kidney, sow, fattening pig.

Funding

The authors thank the Central Veterinary Administration of the State Veterinary Administration for providing the results of the examination of contaminants from the database of the Professional Information System. This research was supported by Internal Creative Agency FVL/Illek/ITA2020, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Czech Republic. Further support was provided by the RECETOX research infrastructure (the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; LM2018121) and CETOCOEN EXCELLENCE Teaming 2 project (Horizon 2020; 857560 and the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; 02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_046/0015975).