HEAVY METALS CONTENT IN BROILER CHICKEN AND ITS SOURCE TRACKING IN KHULNA CITY CORPORATION AREA, BANGLADESH

Abstract

Chicken meat has a high biological value as it contains essential amino acids required for human growth. The quality
of broiler chicken meat may be contaminated by different toxic metal due to variety of anthropogenic activities. The
study was conducted during March 2022 to October 2022 to know the bioaccumulation of heavy metal in broiler
chicken meat and bone; and also, to find out the heavy metal content in chicken feeds which were collected from
Khulna City Corporation area, Bangladesh. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer was used for analyzing the level of
nickel, chromium, cadmium, lead and arsenic. The recorded concentration (mg/kg) of heavy metal were Ni (128 ±
8.051), Cr (12.511 ± 0.855), Cd (0.192 ± 0.062), Pb (18.516 ± 2.733) and As (0.436 ± 0.064) in meat of broiler chicken;
whereas the recorded concentration of Ni (79.308 ± 32.65), Cr (10.453 ± 0.925), Cd (0.177 ± 0.053), Pb (3.797 ±
0.769) and As (0.372 ± 0.056) were in bone. Maximum concentration (mg/kg) of heavy metals in the feed of broiler
chicken were Ni (1.93 ± 0.1760, Cr (60.58 ± 7.791), Cd (0.16 ± 0.027) and Pb (5.86 ± 0.447). The concentration of
Ni, Cr, Cd, Pb and As exceeded the permissible limit guided by WHO and FAO. The studied chicken and feed samples
which were collected from different markets contained an unexpected quantity of heavy metals. The recorded data
indicates that contaminated feeds are the main source of heavy metal of chicken meat and bone. So, always heavy
metal free good quality feeds must be ensured for the broiler chicken to protect the contamination of meat and bone.