Abstract
Concentrations of seven metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn) were analyzed in 33 bone tissue samples of Antillean manatees (Trichechus manatus manatus) found dead in lagoons and rivers of Tabasco and Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico and Chetumal Bay in the Caribbean region. The concentrations of Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn were significantly different between regions, with greater levels found in the Gulf of Mexico group than in the Mexican Caribbean group (p < 0.05). Pb concentrations differed significantly between adults and calves. No differences were observed between sexes. Metal concentrations detected in the manatee bones were higher than most of those reported for bones in other marine mammals around the world. Future studies are necessary to establish whether the metal concentrations represent a risk to the health of the species.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by scholarship no. 355408 granted by CONACYT-México. We thank the Collection of Marine Mammals of ECOSUR-Chetumal, Universidad Autónoma del Carmen, Región Naval 3 of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, and Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco for the bone samples. We thank Dr. José Rogelio Cedeño Vázquez for all his comments and help with the manuscript. We also thank Nicolás Martínez for the sampling assistance of ECOSUR-Chetumal, the Toxicology Laboratory of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for help with the laboratory analyses, and Daniel Díaz Espinosa de los Monteros for his help with the statistical analyses and GraphPad Prism software. We thank Carlos Trillanes-Flores for his immeasurable support.
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Romero-Calderón, A.G., Morales-Vela, B., Rosíles-Martínez, R. et al. Metals in Bone Tissue of Antillean Manatees from the Gulf of Mexico and Chetumal Bay, Mexico. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 96, 9–14 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1674-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1674-6