Bioaccumulation of PCDD/Fs and PCBs in free-range hens: Congener fingerprints and biotransfer factors

摘要: The bioaccumulation of lipophilic environmental contaminants in farm animals is an important issue to control and prevent human exposure to toxic pollutants. Free-range hens were used as a model to assess the transfer and the bioaccumulation of PCDD/Fs, DL-PCBs and NDL-PCBs from the soil to eggs in an area in the Campania region particularly affected by pollution, the “Land of Fires”. We determined the following ranges of concentrations in eggs: 0.90–5.51 pg WHO-TEQ g−1 fat for PCDD/Fs; 1.63–4.24 pg WHO-TEQ g−1 fat for DL-PCBs; 2.77–9.75 pg WHO-TEQ g−1 fat for the sum of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs and 12.53–30.94 ng g−1 fat for NDL-PCBs. Higher contamination levels were observed in the eggs from free-range hens, compared to those of the control group, that is hens raised indoors; this indicates that soil remains a major source of contamination. Livers showed low levels of contamination for …