Interspecies Comparison of Chlorinated Contaminant Concentrations and Profiles in Wild Terrestrial Mammals from Northwest Poland

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine residual polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides in the adipose tissue of wild terrestrial mammals coming from the same area in northwest Poland and to compare the organochlorine content and profile between species. The study was performed on five mammalian species, including omnivores (badger, wild boar, raccoon dog) and herbivores (roe deer, red deer). The obtained results show that the levels of residues of most of the analyzed compounds were greater in omnivorous mammals than herbivorous mammals. We found differences in the pattern of accumulation of organochlorines. In the raccoon dog organochlorines accumulated in the following descending order: DDTs > PCBs > HCHs > endrin > dieldrin; in the badger, wild boar, and roe deer, the order was as follows: DDTs > HCHs > PCBs > endrin > dieldrin; and in red deer, the order was as follows: HCHs > DDTs > PCBs > endrin > dieldrin. PCB 153 was dominant in herbivores and in the wild boar, whereas in the raccoon dog it was lower than PCB 138 and in badger lower than PCB 180. These differences in the tested species may reflect differences in metabolic capacity and/or feeding habits and an uneven distribution of organochlorines in the area where the animals lived. Maximum residue levels (MRLs) were exceeded in single samples from animals whose meat and fat can be consumed by humans. The greatest number of cases where MRLs were exceeded was observed in the adipose tissue of the badger (HCHs, DDTs, endrin, non-dioxin-like PCBs) and the fewest in the adipose tissue of roe deer (only lindane).

Organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyl congeners in wild terrestrial mammals from Croatia: Interspecies comparison of residue levels and compositions

“…The pattern of HCHs reported in this study (c-HCH P b-HCH ) a-HCH) is consistent with published reports on HCH patterns in different matrices and environmental media from Croatia (Kljaković -Gašpić et al, 2010;. In contrast, other reports for different carnivore species worldwide show that b-HCH, due to its persistency, is usually the highly dominating isomer (Bernhoft et al, 1997;Bentzen et al, 2008b), while dominating levels of a-HCH in tissues of wild animals were measured only in areas close to land in agricultural use, where technical mixtures of HCHs were used recently (Tomza-Marciniak et al, 2014). Christensen et al (2005) also reported domination of several more volatile pesticides, including P HCH and HCB, in contaminant profiles of interior grizzly bears consuming a higher proportion of terrestrial vegetation.…”

“…A similar dominance of higher chlorinated PCBs was observed in studies on other terrestrial mammals Gamberg and Braune, 1999;Shore et al, 2001;Christensen et al, 2005;Polder et al, 2009;Tomza-Marciniak et al, 2014).…”

“…Usually, DDE is the predominant metabolite of DDT in terrestrial mammals (Bernhoft et al, 1997;Hoshi et al, 1998;Naso et al, 2004;Mateo et al, 2012;Tomza-Marciniak et al, 2014). This dominance of DDE was also found in the fat of the grey wolf and brown bear in this study, but the overall values were low.…”

“…That is why we could expect that bears, which prey upon species with lower concentrations of POPs typical for the lowermost trophic level of the terrestrial food web, will generally accumulate lower concentrations of organic contaminants in their tissues. The fact that carnivorous and omnivorous animals tend to accumulate more POPs than herbivores has been confirmed previously in studies on terrestrial animals Hoshi et al, 1998;Polder et al, 2009;Tomza-Marciniak et al, 2014).…”

“…Since the lower chlorinated congeners, such as PCB-28 and PCB-52, are much easier to metabolize, they have thus far been observed in low concentrations in tissues of most terrestrial mammals Gamberg and Braune, 1999;Shore et al, 2001;Polder et al, 2009;Tomza-Marciniak et al, 2014). In this study PCB-28 and PCB-52 comprised 27.8% of the P PCBs in bear adipose tissue, while this percentage was significantly lower (12.0%) in wolves.…”