Heavy Metal contamination in chicken feeding at wastewater irrigated agricultural farms in peri urban areas of Multan City, Pakistan: A Health Risk Assessment

The nourishing of domestic chicken is source of livelihood in suburb of all cities and is favorite food of public in urban areas in Pakistan .The study assessed the heavy metal pollution in chicken’s liver and total target health quotient (TTHQ). From six agricultural farms (4 under wastewater, 1 tube-well and 1 under canal water irrigation), liver samples (n=30) were analyzed for cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb) by inductivity coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP- OES), Perkin Elmer USA. Samples of wastewater/water used for irrigation and soils from respective sites were analyzed for same metals for source apportionment. The mean contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn and Ni in livers were within safe limits prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO) across all sites and that of of Pb exceeded safe limit at wastewater irrigated sites. TTHQ ranged 0.01 to 0.16 < 1.0 across all farms showing non carcinogenic health risk to humans. TTHQ values were 5 to 12 times higher at wastewater irrigated farms than that at tube-well and canal water farms. Multivariate statistical analysis indicated that wastewater used for irrigation and contaminated soils are common sources contributing the heavy metal contamination in livers. Tube-well and canal water irrigated fields are better places for nourishing the domestic chicken than wastewater irrigated fields to safeguard the public health