Assessing health risk in livestock through quantification of iron in forages, soil and buffalo blood from Sargodha, Pakistan

Abstract

Air pollution is very important issue now-a-days. This has affected the components of environment to a great extent. Organisms like animals, plants and human beings are forced to live in such polluted environments. One of the pollution sources to the environment is vehicular traffic which has toxic effect on the roadside plants. In this study, roadside forages, soil and buffalo blood were studied to estimate the level of heavy metal pollution, iron in particular, in Sargodha from six chosen sites at perimeter of major roads. Collected samples were processed and digested for quantification of iron by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Soil and buffalo samples from the site V showed high concentration of iron, whereas in forage, samples collected from site IV had greatest iron concentration. The bio concentration factor found for forage-soil was highest in the samples collected from site IV. On the other hand, bio-concentration factor for blood-forage and pollution load index was found highest in the samples collected from site V. Correlation for soil-forage and blood-forage was found negatively non-significant. The daily intake of metals for iron was found highest for site IV. The Health risk index was highest for the samples collected from site VI.