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Wildlife hair as bioindicators of metal exposure

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Abstract

Animal hair is a useful biomonitoring tool for assessing the occurrence of trace elements in ecosystems. Essential (chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, and zinc) and nonessential (aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, palladium, platinum, rubidium, tin, and vanadium) elements were investigated in hair of badger (Meles meles), wild boar (Sus scrofa), marmot (Marmota marmota), wolf (Canis lupus), fox (Vulpes vulpes) and deer (Cervus elaphus) from Northwestern Italy. Badger was found to be the highest bioaccumulator of metals, while wolf, fox and deer recorded the lowest values. Essential elements contribute in higher degree to the sum of metals for all species except for wild boar. Results have shown that animals with omnivorous diet such as badger, marmot and wild boar have metal content (especially Al, As, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, V) higher than carnivores (wolf and fox) and herbivores (deer) and could represent an effective sentinel of environmental exposure to metals.

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Data availability

Data supporting the findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Italian Health Ministry Research Grants (Project n°: IZS PLV grant code 11/19 RC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemistry Department, CReAA, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria E Valle d’Aosta (IZS PLV), via Bologna 148, Turin, Italy

    Stefania Squadrone, Serena Robetto, Riccardo Orusa, Alessandra Griglione, Stefano Falsetti, Brizio Paola & Maria Cesarina Abete

  2. National Reference Centre Wild Animal Diseases (CeRMAS) – IZS PLV, Regione Amerique 7/G, Quart, AO, Italy

    Serena Robetto & Riccardo Orusa

Authors
  1. Stefania Squadrone
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  2. Serena Robetto
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  3. Riccardo Orusa
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  4. Alessandra Griglione
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  5. Stefano Falsetti
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  6. Brizio Paola
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  7. Maria Cesarina Abete
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study. Activity planning was in charge of Serena Robetto and Riccardo Orusa. Material preparation, data collection, methodology optimization and chemical analysis were performed by Alessandra Griglione, Paola Brizio and Stefano Falsetti. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Stefania Squadrone. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. Review, editing of the final manuscript was performed by Stefania Squadrone and Serena Robetto. Supervision was performed by Maria Cesarina Abete and Riccardo Orusa. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefania Squadrone.

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Squadrone, S., Robetto, S., Orusa, R. et al. Wildlife hair as bioindicators of metal exposure. Biol Trace Elem Res 200, 5073–5080 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-03074-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-03074-6

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