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Monitoring pollution in River Mureş, Romania, part II: Metal accumulation and histopathology in fish

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Abstract

As a part of an exposure and effect monitoring conducted along the river Mureş, Western Romania in 2004, the health status of two indigenous fish species, sneep (Chondrostoma nasus) and European chub (Leuciscus cephalus) was investigated upstream and downstream the city of Arad. In fish, histopathology was assessed in liver and gills, and heavy metals (cadmium, copper, lead and zinc) were analyzed in liver samples. In both fish species, histopathological reactions in the gills (epithelial lifting, focal proliferation of epithelial cells of primary and secondary lamellae and resulting fusion of secondary lamellae, hyperplasia and hypertrophy of mucous cells, focal inflammation and necrosis of epithelial cells) were most severe at the two sampling sites upstream Arad city, which were shown to be polluted by copper, cadmium, faecal coliforms and streptococci in a parallel study. At these two sites, also histopathology in the liver of L. cephalus was more prominent than at the two downstream sites. In C. nasus, symptoms in the liver (focal inflammation with lymphocytic infiltrations, macrophage aggregates and single cell necrosis) were also highly pronounced at the sampling site located directly downstream the municipal sewage treatment plant of Arad. With the exception of copper accumulation in L. cephalus caught at the most upstream sampling site, in both fish species cadmium and copper accumulation were exceptionally high and did not differ significantly between the four sampling sites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Steinbeis-Transfer Center for Ecotoxicology and Ecophysiology, Blumenstr. 13, 72108, Rottenburg, Germany

    Rita Triebskorn

  2. Animal Physiological Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Rita Triebskorn, Heidi Casper & Heinz-R. Köhler

  3. Department of Biology, Oradea University, Oradea, Romania

    Ilie Telcean

  4. Balaton Limnological Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tihany, Hungary

    Anna Farkas

  5. Institute of Biology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania

    Cristina Sandu

  6. Biological Faculty, Western University “Vasile Goldiş”, Arad, Romania

    Gheorghe Stan

  7. Department of Life and Earth Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Gheorghe Stan

  8. Consultants to the Biological Faculty, Western University “Vasile Goldiş”, Arad, Romania

    Ovidiu Colărescu & Tiberiu Dori

Authors
  1. Rita Triebskorn
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  2. Ilie Telcean
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  3. Heidi Casper
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  4. Anna Farkas
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  5. Cristina Sandu
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  6. Gheorghe Stan
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  7. Ovidiu Colărescu
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  8. Tiberiu Dori
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  9. Heinz-R. Köhler
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Correspondence to Rita Triebskorn.

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Triebskorn, R., Telcean, I., Casper, H. et al. Monitoring pollution in River Mureş, Romania, part II: Metal accumulation and histopathology in fish. Environ Monit Assess 141, 177–188 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-9886-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-007-9886-9

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