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Horse Whole Blood Trace Elements from Different Sicily Areas: Biomonitoring of Environmental Risk

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Abstract

Horses are excellent bioindicators for the assessment of environmental pollution. The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels and potential bioaccumulation of 28 mineral elements in 75 horse whole blood samples collected from five pollution-prone areas of Sicily, Italy. A direct mercury analyzer (DMA-80) was used for Hg determination, and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for all other elements. A one-way ANOVA test, followed by Bonferroni’s multiple comparison for post hoc comparison, was applied to assess statistically significant differences between mineral elements and the five experimental groups. The levels of mineral elements in hay and concentrate were below the limits set by Regulation No. 744/2012. The mineral content of whole blood samples was slightly influenced by the region of origin of the horse. p values < 0.05 were statistically meaningful. However, the concentrations of mineral elements in horses’ whole blood remained within reference ranges. In conclusion, the present study shows that the mineral content does not represent a toxicological risk for the analyzed horses. In addition, the study areas did not appear to show a high mineral element contamination.

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Institutional Review Board Statement

The Ethics Review Board (Veterinary Department Ethics Committee) of the University of Messina considers that this type of project does not fall under the legislation for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, national decree-law 113/2013 (2010-63-EU directive). It considers there are no procedures conducted on animals. The blood used in this study was obtained from horses brought to a laboratory of analysis for routine (hemocytometric and biochemical) by a veterinarian according to good practices. Following clinical tests, the excess blood was obtained by the authors of the manuscript with the owner’s authorization and written informed consent as a free donation from the owner for scientific purposes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary Science, University of Messina, Via Giovanni Palatucci, 98168, Messina, Italy

    Vincenzo Nava, Patrizia Licata, Vito Biondi, Giuseppe Catone, Enrico Gugliandolo, Michela Pugliese, Annamaria Passantino, Rosalia Crupi & Francesca Aragona

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  1. Vincenzo Nava
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  2. Patrizia Licata
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Contributions

Conceptualization, P.L..; methodology.; validation; formal analysis, investigation, V.B, E.G. and V.N, writing—original draft preparation, V.N., G.C, M.P, F.A, A.P. and R.C..; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript

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Correspondence to Vincenzo Nava.

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Nava, V., Licata, P., Biondi, V. et al. Horse Whole Blood Trace Elements from Different Sicily Areas: Biomonitoring of Environmental Risk. Biol Trace Elem Res 202, 3086–3096 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-023-03889-5

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