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Breeding near a landfill may influence blood metals (Cd, Pb, Hg, Fe, Zn) and metalloids (Se, As) in white stork (Ciconia ciconia) nestlings

Ecotoxicology volume 23, pages 1377–1386 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Cadmium, lead, mercury, selenium, iron, zinc and arsenic levels were measured in blood samples from 59 free-ranging white stork nestlings from colonies located in three different environmental conditions in Western Spain. The reference colony was situated in “Llanos de Cáceres y Sierra de Fuentes”, an Area of Special Interest for Bird Protection. A second colony was located close to (4.9 km) an urban landfill and a third one was close to both an intensive agricultural area and an urban landfill (1.5 km). Blood samples were diluted and elemental analysis was performed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. In all cases, the essential metals zinc and iron were found at the highest mean concentrations followed by lead > selenium > mercury > arsenic > cadmium. Regarding toxic metals, the highest concentrations were found for lead (ranging from 23.27 to 146.4 µg/L) although in all cases the concentrations were lower than those considered to cause subclinical effects. The metals levels detected in the chick’s blood were not related to the previously reported levels in the soil next to the colonies, which may indicate that landfills are the main source of metals in white stork nestlings. The present data showed that metal levels in white stork chicks may be influenced by the use of landfills as feeding areas by the parents. However, more studies on the metal content in the feed of white stork and the influence of the distance to the landfill are necessary to establish the causality of these findings.

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Acknowledgments

Irene de la Casa-Resino was supported by fellowship PRE09001 from Consejería de Empleo, Empresa e Innovación (Gobierno de Extremadura, Spain).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Affiliations

  1. Toxicology Unit, Animal Health Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Extremadura, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 10003, Cáceres, Spain

    Irene de la Casa-Resino, David Hernández-Moreno, Marcos Pérez-López & Francisco Soler

  2. Sociedad Zoológica de Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain

    Antonio Castellano

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  1. Irene de la Casa-Resino
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  2. David Hernández-Moreno
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  3. Antonio Castellano
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  4. Marcos Pérez-López
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  5. Francisco Soler
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Correspondence to Francisco Soler.

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de la Casa-Resino, I., Hernández-Moreno, D., Castellano, A. et al. Breeding near a landfill may influence blood metals (Cd, Pb, Hg, Fe, Zn) and metalloids (Se, As) in white stork (Ciconia ciconia) nestlings. Ecotoxicology 23, 1377–1386 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1280-0

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Keywords

  • White stork
  • Metals
  • Blood
  • Pollution
  • Landfill