Overview
Boahene and colleagues sampled liver, kidney and muscle from locally reared cattle, sheep and goats at the Tamale abattoir and measured lead and cadmium by graphite furnace atomic absorption. Table 3 gives mean ± SD per species and organ (three samples each), and Table 2 pools the three species by organ. Lead was detected only in cattle and sheep liver; cadmium was found in most tissues, highest in sheep liver.
Key numbers
- Cattle liver: lead 7.06 ± 7.06 mg/kg; sheep liver: lead 2.46 ± 2.46 mg/kg; all kidney and muscle lead below the detection limit (Table 3, p. 366).
- Sheep liver: cadmium 9.99 ± 9.50 mg/kg; sheep kidney 2.30 ± 0.91 mg/kg (Table 3).
- Muscle cadmium: cattle 0.07 ± 0.03, sheep 0.21 ± 0.06, goat 0.13 ± 0.08 mg/kg (Table 3).
Methods (brief)
Samples were washed, sun-dried and oven-dried at 105 °C, ground and digested in nitric and perchloric acids, then analysed by graphite furnace AAS. No LOD, certified reference material, recovery or blank data are reported, and the tables do not state the basis (the drying step suggests dry weight).
Evidence Fitness
Very small samples (three per species and organ) from one abattoir, with no analytical quality control reported. SDs equal to their means suggest a single detect among three samples. The text says goat muscle had no cadmium, but Table 3 prints 0.13 mg/kg. Muscle is a beef and mutton proxy for Vegetable beef soup, which is not linked. The journal issue is printed as Volume 7 No. 2, 2020; the manifest year is 2021.