Study of Essential Elements in Cattle Tissues from a Tropical Country Using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in the elemental composition of animal tissues to support health and nutritional studies. Determining the elemental concentration in cattle tissues is especially important because these materials are used for multipurpose objectives such as the assessment of animal health, the quality of human foods consumed, and as a potential environmental biomonitor. Chromium, copper, sodium, potassium, iron, and zinc levels were determined in bovine tissues-kidney, liver and muscle-from cattle bred and raised in a potentially metal contaminated region because of mineral activities. The Brazilian data were obtained using k 0-instrumental neutron activation analysis, performed at the Nuclear Development Technology Centre/Nuclear Energy National Commission (CDTN/CNEN) in Minas Gerais State. The values of international organizations and the Brazilian analytical data are compatible. This study indicates that the nuclear technique is an efficient tool to determine elemental concentration in animal biological samples.

Composição mineral de fosfatos, calcário e farinha de ossos usados na Agropecuária Brasileira

“…O fosfato foi homogeneizado e encaminhado para cada uma das análises consideradas a seguir: difratometria de raios-x pelo método do pó (fases cristalinas); gravimetria (S e SiO 2 ), fósforo (P 2 O 5 ) por colorimetria com fosfomolibdato (Cunnif, 1995). Na, Zn, Fe e Co pela técnica nuclear de análise por ativação neutrônica no reator nuclear IPR-R1 do CDTN/CNEN (Avelar et al, 2002) e Espectrofotometria de absorção atômica (CaO). Os ensaios de solubilidade seguiram a literatura (Duarte et al, 2003).…”

Nuclear Analytical Techniques in Animal Sciences: New Approaches and Outcomes

“…Since 2000, our research group has been dedicated to apply Neutron Activation Analysis in Animal Sciences. Starting from acquiring data for minerals in bovine tissues of the Brazilian cattle; at that point we could not find any study involving such tissues in Brazil in the nutrition field [7].…”

“…In that first study [7], our objective was focused to assess the elemental composition of animal tissues to support health and nutritional studies. Since cattle were and still are the most prevalent source of protein among Brazilian families, including meat, milk and dairy products.…”

“…About 70% of the ele-ments have nuclides possessing properties suitable for neutron activation analysis. At the Nuclear Technology Development Centre (CDTN), there is a nuclear reac-tor TRIGA MARK I IPR-R1 that allows the application of this technique [7].…”

Predicting the Content of 20 Minerals in Beef by Different Portable Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectrometers

“…The mineral content of meat is usually determined by various chemical analytical methods [ 3 ], such as atomic absorption spectrometry [ 4 ], inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) [ 5 ], and neutron activation analysis (NAA) [ 6 ]. A few other methods, e.g., X-ray emission spectrometry, molecular light absorption spectrometry, and molecular fluorometry, are also used to analyze minerals in food and feed materials [ 7 ].…”