Determination of Heavy Metals Content (Cadmium and Lead) in Raw Cow’s and Buffalo’s Milk

Abstract

The collected bovine milk samples (n= 30) were analyzed for determination of Cadmium and Lead contents. Cadmium and Lead levels were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer after wet digestion. The levels of Cadmium in all analyzed samples 30 (100%) were found to be over the permissible limit for Cadmium in liquid milk. The levels of Lead exceeded the permissible limit in 13(72.22%) and 4(33.33%) of analyzed Cow’s milk and Buffalo’s milk samples, respectively. The mean concentrations of Cadmium in examined cow’s milk samples (n=18) were 0.3067 ± 0.0086 (mg/L) and 0.3084 ± 0.0087 (mg/L) for the examined buffalo’s milk samples (n=12), while the mean concentrations of Lead were 0.0934 ± 0.0188 (mg/L) for the examined cow’s milk and 0.05878 ± 0.0178(mg/L) for examined buffaloe’s milk. Estimated daily intake of Cadmium was found above the permissible limits in all examined milk. Also, the estimated daily intake of Lead was found above the permissible limits in examined cow’s milk, while estimated daily intake of Lead in examined buffalo’s milk was found under permissible limit. Public health significance and hazardous of these heavy metals were discussed.