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Screening of PCDDs/Fs and DL-PCBs by AhR-CALUX bioassay in bovine milk and environment ash from India

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Abstract

Objectives

Persistent organic pollutants have great public concerns due to their wide distribution, physicochemical property, persistent in the environment and high toxicity level. PCDD/PCDFs and PCBs are produced unintentionally and occurs as a by-product in many chemical processes. Physicochemical and biological resistance of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs results in contamination of air, water, soil and foods. This study provides an overview of dioxins and dioxin-related compounds contamination in bovine milk and ash samples in south India, Tamil Nadu.

Methods

PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs were analyzed from the bovine milk and ash samples collected from the urban and rural area of the South part of India, Tamil Nadu using chemically activated luciferase expression (CALUX) assay. The CALUX assay method validation has simplified the monitoring of dioxin and dioxin like-PCBs contamination in the environment.

Results

The total toxic equivalency (TEQ) for PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs in the bovine milk samples were ranged from 0.028 to 7.331-pg TEQ/g fat. Some of the districts showed higher PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs concentration in milk and ash samples. Further, BM14 (7.331 pg-TEQ/g fat) and BM21 (6.406 pg-TEQ/g fat) sampling sites showed exceed level of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs than WHO regulation limits (6 pg-TEQ/g fat). Similarly, total dioxins and DL-PCBs concentration in the ash sample were between 0.003 and 1 ng TEQ/g. Samples from AS3 (1.2 ng-TEQ/g) and AS11 (1.06 ng-TEQ/g) showed higher total dioxins and DL-PCBs level among other sampling sites.

Conclusion

This study found distribution of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs in bovine milk and ash samples collected from nine different major districts namely, which were highly populated and industrialized districts of South India (Tamil Nadu). Higher PCDD/Fs concentration was found in both bovine milk and ash samples compared to DL-PCBs. However, there was no positive correlation between bovine milk and ash samples.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank to HIYOSHI Corporation (Japan), to provide facilities and support for the entire research work. A special thanks to Dr. R. Babu Rajendran (Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Bharathidasan University) providing this opportunity to accomplish the work in Japan.

Funding

This full work carried out and funded by Hiyoshi Corporation, 908, Kitanosho-Cho, Omihachiman, Shiga, Japan.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Murugasamy Mayilsamy and Seethappan Sangeetha These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered as Joint-First authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalli, 620 024, India

    Murugasamy Mayilsamy & Seethappan Sangeetha

  2. Hiyoshi India Ecological Services Private Limited TICEL Biopark Ltd Taramani Road (CSIR Road), Taramani, Module No: 201 & 202 (Phase I, Second Floor), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Murugasamy Mayilsamy & Krishnamoorthi Vimalkumar

  3. New York University Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Seethappan Sangeetha & Krishnamoorthi Vimalkumar

  4. Hiyoshi Corporation, Omihachiman, Kitanosho-ChoShiga, 908, Japan

    Masafumi Nakamura & Shunkei Ko

  5. Department of Environmental Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea

    Muthusamy Govarthanan

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Contributions

MM contributed to investigation, data curation, validation and review, SS contributed to investigation, data curation, validation and writing—original draft, MN contributed to method validation and investigation, SK contributed to methodology, visualization and investigation, MG contributed to visualization, investigation and formal analysis, KV contributed to writing—review, edit, method validation and supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Krishnamoorthi Vimalkumar.

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Conflict of interest

Murugasamy Mayilsamy, Seethappan Sangeetha, Masafumi Nakamura, Shunkei Ko, Muthusamy Govarthanan, and Krishnamoorthi Vimalkumar declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human subjects or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Mayilsamy, M., Sangeetha, S., Nakamura, M. et al. Screening of PCDDs/Fs and DL-PCBs by AhR-CALUX bioassay in bovine milk and environment ash from India. Toxicol. Environ. Health Sci. 14, 223–234 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13530-022-00133-w

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