Heavy metal concentrations in the small intestine of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) with and without Echinococcus multilocularis infection

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2015-02, Vol.22 (4), p.3175-3179
• Main Authors: Brožová, Adela, Jankovská, Ivana, Miholová, Daniela, Scháňková, Štěpánka, Truněčková, Jana, Langrová, Iva, Kudrnáčová, Marie, Vadlejch, Jaroslav
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animals; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Cadmium; Chromium; Copper; Czech Republic; Earth and Environmental Science; Echinococcosis - veterinary; Echinococcus multilocularis; Echinococcus multilocularis - metabolism; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Females; Foxes; Foxes - metabolism; Foxes - parasitology; Heavy Metal Poisoning; Heavy metals; Hypotheses; Infections; Intestine, Small - chemistry; Intestine, Small - metabolism; Intestine, Small - parasitology; iron; Laboratories; Lead; Life sciences; Manganese; Metal concentrations; Metals, Heavy - analysis; Metals, Heavy - metabolism; Natural resources; nickel; Poisoning; Predation; Short Research and Discussion Article; Small intestine; Spectrophotometry, Atomic; Statistics, Nonparametric; tapeworms; tissues; toxicity; Tropical diseases; Vulpes vulpes; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Worms; zinc
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-014-3733-7

Heavy metal (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) levels in red fox small intestine samples with or without Echinococcus multilocularis infection were studied. The red foxes were taken from the open countryside of northwest Bohemia (CR). Red foxes with E. multilocularis infection had lower levels of toxic metals (Cd, Pb); cadmium levels in infected foxes (0.0052 mg/kg) were twice as low as in uninfected foxes (0.0106 mg/kg). This was the same case for lead: 0.0288 mg/kg infected red foxes (inf.) and 0.0413 mg/kg uninfected (uninf.). Conversely, red foxes with E. multilocularis infection yielded higher concentrations in comparison to their uninfected counterparts: Cr (0.0087 mg/kg uninf. and 0.0116 mg/kg inf.), Cu (0.2677 mg/kg uninf. and 0.3205 mg/kg inf.), Fe (6.46 mg/kg uninf. and 10.89 mg/kg inf.), Mn (0.1966 mg/kg uninf. and 0.2029 mg/kg inf.), Ni (0.0415 mg/kg uninf. and 0.064 mg/kg inf.) and Zn (16.71 mg/kg uninf. and 20.25 mg/kg inf). This could support the hypothesis that tapeworms are able to absorb toxic heavy metals from the host body into their tissues, as well as to modify other element concentrations in the host body.