A survey of mercury content in pig tissues carried out in the Czech Republic during years 2015–2019

Svoboda, Martin; Bureš, Jiří; Drápal, Jiří; Geboliszová, Kristýna; Haruštiaková, Danka; Nepejchalová, Leona; Skočovská, Marie; Svobodová, Zdeňka

doi:10.2754/avb202190030287

Acta Veterinaria > Archive > 2021, Vol. 90 > Issue 3 > A survey of mercury content in pig…

Acta Vet. Brno 2021, 90: 287-293

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb202190030287

A survey of mercury content in pig tissues carried out in the Czech Republic during years 2015–2019

Martin Svoboda¹, Jiří Bureš², Jiří Drápal³, Kristýna Geboliszová⁴, Danka Haruštiaková^5,6, Leona Nepejchalová², Marie Skočovská⁴, Zdeňka Svobodová⁷

¹University of Veterinary Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ruminant and Swine Clinic, Brno, Czech Republic
²Institute for State Control of Veterinary Biologicals and Medicines, Brno, Czech Republic
³Central Veterinary Administration of the State Veterinary Administration, Prague, Czech Republic
⁴University of Veterinary Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Large Animal Clinical Laboratory, Brno, Czech Republic
⁵Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Brno, Czech Republic
⁶Masaryk University, Faculty of Science, RECETOX, Brno, Czech Republic
⁷University of Veterinary Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, Department of Animal Protection and Welfare and Veterinary Public Health, Brno, Czech Republic

Received November 4, 2020
Accepted August 31, 2021

The assessment of mercury 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 sows (n = 31) and fattening pigs (n = 210). The average mercury content in muscle, liver, and kidneys of sows over 5 years was 0.00057 ± 0.00004, 0.0045 ± 0.0008, and 0.0224 ± 0.0067 mg·kg^-1, respectively. The average mercury content in muscle, liver, and kidneys of fattening pigs over the same period was 0.00059 ± 0.00004, 0.0012 ± 0.0001, and 0.0044 ± 0.0004 mg·kg^-1, respectively. The maximum residual limit (MRL) for human consumption was exceeded in 14 kidney samples. The mercury content in liver did not differ significantly between sows and fattening pigs; in kidneys, the mercury content was higher in sows, with a significant difference in one year (P < 0.05). A slight decrease in the mercury content in kidneys and liver was observed in fattening pigs from the year 2015. In sows, there was a significant increase in the mercury content in kidneys in the year 2016. It can be concluded that there is a need for further monitoring of the mercury content in pig tissues in the Czech Republic.

Keywords

Swine, kidney, liver, 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 the Internal Creative Agency FVL/Illek/ITA2019, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Czech Republic. Further support was provided by the RECETOX research infrastructure (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic; LM2018121) and CETOCOEN EXCELLENCE Teaming 2 project (Horizon 2020; 857560 and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic; 02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_046/0015975).