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Accumulation of Mercury in The Tissues of the Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) From Common Carp

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Abstract

The aim of this work is to assess mercury content in the great cormorant in the Třeboň region pond systems (Czech Republic) in terms of its potential to accumulate mercury from common carp. Selected tissues samples were taken from 51 cormorants and 30 common carp. In the food chain the cormorant was found to have the potential to accumulate mercury, where the muscle total mercury was roughly 35 times higher compared to the total mercury content in the carp muscle as its food. A statistically significantly higher overall mercury content (p < 0.01) has been found in the kidney and liver (2.23 ± 0.30, 2.12 ± 0.22 mg/kg) compared to other tissues examined in cormorants. The proportion of muscle methylmercury in the total mercury content of the cormorant was within the range 64.3%–87.3%. The results can help us to gain a better understanding of how mercury is distributed and accumulated in the aquatic food chain.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank for providing support project IGA VFU Brno 237/2015/ FVHE. The article passed the language correction by native speaker Simon OʹFlynn from the Company CHICORY s.r.o.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

    Tomas Kral, Jana Blahova, Veronika Doubkova, Dagmar Farkova, Vladimir Vecerek & Zdenka Svobodova

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  1. Tomas Kral
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  2. Jana Blahova
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  3. Veronika Doubkova
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  4. Dagmar Farkova
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  5. Vladimir Vecerek
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  6. Zdenka Svobodova
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Correspondence to Tomas Kral.

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Kral, T., Blahova, J., Doubkova, V. et al. Accumulation of Mercury in The Tissues of the Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) From Common Carp. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 98, 167–171 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-016-2002-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-016-2002-5

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