Content of toxic elements in tissues of hunted animals on the basis of research results of 2003–2017

Rudy et al. 2019 — Review of toxic elements in wild boar, roe deer, and red deer tissues, 2003–2017

This Polish peer-reviewed narrative review synthesises 41 primary studies published between 2003 and 2017 on Pb, Cd, As, and Hg concentrations in the muscle, liver, and kidney of wild boar (Sus scrofa), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), and red deer (Cervus elaphus) hunted across Central and Western Europe — predominantly Poland, with comparisons to Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, and Spain. The authors report per-tissue mean ± SD with min/max and an “UP” column expressing each cell as a percentage of the applicable EU or Polish regulatory threshold (EU 1881/2006 for Pb and Cd in pig meat and offal, applied as a livestock proxy; the Polish Chief Veterinary Officer’s national action levels for As; EU 2018/73 amending EU 396/2005 for Hg in game meat and offal). The reproduced data document substantial regional contrast — Polish Upper Silesia (Górny Śląsk) kidney Cd in roe deer averaging 80.26 mg/kg w.w. (8026 % UP), versus Polish Masurian Lake District (Pojezierze Mazurskie) roe deer muscle Cd at 0.007 mg/kg w.w. (14 % UP) — and confirm the broader literature pattern that kidney and liver carry the highest Pb, Cd, and Hg burdens, with muscle Pb in red deer (Croatian and Polish data) and roe deer (Croatian data) exceeding the EU pig-meat 0.10 mg/kg threshold across most regional cells reported.

The paper does not generate new measurements; values are attributed to the underlying primary studies via numeric citations (1)–(41) printed in the source-citation column of each table. Several of those primaries are or will be ingested as their own wiki source pages — Gašparík 2017 (S/N (16) in the review’s reference list does not match Gašparík 2017’s metals paper; see Verification notes for the disambiguation against Kramárová 2005, which is the actual (16) cited here).

Key numbers

All values are mean ± SD in mg/kg fresh mass (wet weight, “św. m.”). UP = the review’s “udział procentowy” — percentage of the applicable maximum permitted level. EU 1881/2006 thresholds applied by the authors for the UP calculation are: muscle Pb 0.10 mg/kg, muscle Cd 0.05 mg/kg, kidney Pb 0.50 mg/kg, kidney Cd 1.00 mg/kg, liver Pb 0.50 mg/kg, liver Cd 0.50 mg/kg. Polish national arsenic action levels: muscle 0.20 mg/kg, liver/kidney 0.50 mg/kg. EU 2018/73 Hg thresholds: game-meat muscle and game offal 0.04 mg/kg; wild-boar offal carve-out 0.10 mg/kg. Source-citation numbers in parentheses match the review’s reference list (1)–(41).

Table 1 — Lead (Pb), mg/kg w.w.; 2005–2017 primary data:

Species	Country/Region	Tissue	n	Mean ± SD	Min	Max	UP (%)	Ref
Wild boar	Croatia / Osijek	kidney	39	0.0728 ± 0.0187	0.0120	0.7920	14.6	(9)
Wild boar	Croatia / Vukovar	kidney	43	0.0533 ± 0.0178	0.0010	0.6450	10.7	(9)
Wild boar	Poland / Górny Śląsk (Upper Silesia)	kidney	52	1.1900 ± 1.234	0.1140	6.9300	238.0	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	kidney	60	0.0880 ± 0.045	0.0320	0.2550	17.6	(7)
Wild boar	Italy / Viterbo	kidney	61	0.2980 ± 0.095	0.0890	0.4400	59.6	(2)
Wild boar	Poland / Górny Śląsk	muscle	34	0.0460 ± 0.025	<0.0020	0.0920	46.0	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	muscle	42	0.0270 ± 0.025	<0.0020	0.1300	27.0	(7)
Wild boar	Italy / Viterbo	muscle	–	0.1240 ± 0.028	0.0800	0.2260	124.0	(6)
Wild boar	Croatia	liver	159	0.1740	–	–	34.8	(19)
Wild boar	Italy / Viterbo	liver	–	0.3290 ± 0.072	0.1790	0.5640	65.8	(6)
Roe deer	Poland / Bogatynia	kidney	–	0.1180 ± 0.026	–	–	23.6	(34)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	kidney	25	0.9060 ± 0.524	0.2150	2.1500	181.2	(7)
Roe deer	Poland / Turoszów Coal Basin	kidney	51	0.0990 ± 0.090	0.0230	0.4540	19.8	(7)
Roe deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	–	0.0590 ± 0.011	–	–	11.8	(34)
Roe deer	Croatia	muscle	31	0.1760	–	–	176.0	(19)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	muscle	25	0.0570 ± 0.038	0.0090	0.1540	57.0	(7)
Roe deer	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	muscle	22	0.0120 ± 0.010	<0.0010	0.0390	12.0	(7)
Roe deer	Croatia	liver	31	0.0870	–	–	17.4	(19)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	liver	25	0.3030 ± 0.311	0.1010	1.6160	60.6	(7)
Roe deer	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	liver	31	0.0580 ± 0.076	0.0110	0.3840	11.6	(7)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	–	0.2600	–	–	52.0	(8)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	14	0.0620 ± 0.024	0.0340	0.1090	12.4	(10)
Red deer	Croatia	muscle	123	0.1710	–	–	171.0	(19)
Red deer	Poland / southwest	muscle	23	0.1200 ± 0.10	0.0400	0.4700	120.0	(30)
Red deer	Poland / northeast	muscle	27	0.1000 ± 0.09	0.0400	0.4800	100.0	(30)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	muscle	–	0.2200	–	–	220.0	(8)
Red deer	Croatia	liver	127	0.0800	–	–	16.0	(19)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	liver	–	0.3100	–	–	62.0	(8)

Table 2 — Cadmium (Cd), mg/kg w.w.; 2005–2017 primary data:

Species	Country/Region	Tissue	n	Mean ± SD	Min	Max	UP (%)	Ref
Wild boar	Croatia	kidney	169	2.8400 ± 0.216	0.0030	13.6700	284.0	(3)
Wild boar	Poland / Górny Śląsk	kidney	52	49.5000 ± 45.75	10.0000	245.5000	4950.0	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	kidney	60	2.1130 ± 1.239	0.4220	8.1550	211.3	(7)
Wild boar	Croatia	muscle	327	0.0519	–	–	103.8	(19)
Wild boar	Poland / Górny Śląsk	muscle	51	0.0400 ± 0.031	0.0080	0.1400	80.0	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	muscle	61	0.0040 ± 0.004	<0.0010	0.0220	80.0	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / southeast	muscle	20	0.0140	0.0080	0.0200	28.0	(28)
Wild boar	Poland / Turoszów Coal Basin	muscle	56	0.0040 ± 0.003	<0.0010	0.0160	80.0	(7)
Wild boar	Croatia	liver	327	0.3930	–	–	78.6	(19)
Wild boar	Poland / Górny Śląsk	liver	52	5.5730 ± 6.031	0.7680	39.6000	1114.6	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	liver	60	0.1890 ± 0.167	0.0290	0.9450	37.8	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / southeast	liver	20	0.2920	0.0890	0.4420	58.4	(28)
Roe deer	Poland / Bełchatów	kidney	–	0.7980 ± 0.173	–	–	79.8	(34)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	kidney	–	80.2600 ± 9.620	–	–	8026.0	(34)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	kidney	25	39.6000 ± 24.54	1.8510	89.8800	3960.0	(7)
Roe deer	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	kidney	31	1.5820 ± 1.907	0.2330	9.0260	158.2	(7)
Roe deer	Croatia	muscle	51	0.0107	–	–	21.4	(19)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	muscle	26	0.0430 ± 0.040	0.0030	0.1510	86.0	(7)
Roe deer	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	muscle	31	0.0070 ± 0.009	<0.0010 (below LOD)	0.0400	14.0	(7)
Roe deer	Croatia	liver	49	0.5110	–	–	102.2	(19)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	liver	25	6.4350 ± 6.096	0.9380	20.6100	1287.0	(7)
Roe deer	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	liver	31	0.1150 ± 0.130	0.0150	0.5140	23.0	(7)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	14	4.9740 ± 1.90	1.3110	6.9250	497.4	(10)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	–	2.2000	–	–	220.0	(8)
Red deer	Slovakia	kidney	22	2.3900 ± 0.91	0.3200	5.7600	239.0	(16)
Red deer	Croatia	muscle	124	0.0584	–	–	116.8	(19)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	muscle	–	0.1000	–	–	200.0	(8)
Red deer	northern Italy	muscle	210	0.0060	–	–	12.0	(4)
Red deer	Croatia	liver	372	0.1520	–	–	30.4	(19)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	liver	–	0.1900	–	–	38.0	(8)
Red deer	Slovakia	liver	22	0.2600 ± 0.10	0.0700	0.8700	52.0	(16)

Table 3 — Arsenic (total As, no speciation in the underlying primaries reviewed here), mg/kg w.w.; 2003–2017 primary data:

Species	Country/Region	Tissue	n	Mean ± SD	Min	Max	UP (%)	Ref
Wild boar	Croatia / Osijek	kidney	39	0.0171 ± 0.0009	0.0004	0.0230	3.4	(9)
Wild boar	Croatia / Virovitica	kidney	44	0.0135 ± 0.0011	0.0020	0.0350	2.7	(9)
Wild boar	Slovakia / Zemplin	kidney	15	0.1700 ± 0.22	0.0100	0.8200	34.0	(24)
Wild boar	Croatia / Osijek	muscle	39	0.0130 ± 0.0012	0.0002	0.0230	6.5	(9)
Wild boar	Croatia / Virovitica	muscle	44	0.0158 ± 0.0010	0.0010	0.0200	7.9	(9)
Wild boar	Slovakia / Zemplin	muscle	15	0.0700 ± 0.1	0.0100	0.3100	35.0	(24)
Wild boar	Croatia / Osijek	liver	39	0.0190 ± 0.0005	0.0030	0.0200	3.8	(9)
Wild boar	Croatia / Virovitica	liver	44	0.0130 ± 0.0011	0.0001	0.0210	2.6	(9)
Wild boar	Slovakia / Zemplin	liver	15	0.2100 ± 0.36	0.0100	0.9000	42.0	(24)
Roe deer	Poland / Bogatynia	kidney	12	0.0130 ± 0.0030	–	–	6.5	(18)
Roe deer	Poland / Grębocice	kidney	12	0.0393 ± 0.0239	–	–	7.9	(18)
Roe deer	Poland / Grębocice	muscle	12	0.0914 ± 0.0720	–	–	45.7	(18)
Roe deer	Poland / Piaseczno	muscle	12	0.0131 ± 0.0020	–	–	6.55	(18)
Roe deer	Hungary / Eger	muscle	20	0.2700 ± 0.20	0.0300	0.5100	135.0	(20)
Roe deer	Poland / Bogatynia	liver	12	0.0125 ± 0.0015	–	–	2.5	(18)
Roe deer	Poland / Wrocław	liver	12	0.0594 ± 0.0270	–	–	11.9	(18)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	14	0.0030 ± 0.002	0.0020	0.0070	0.6	(10)
Red deer	Spain	muscle	–	0.00596 ± 0.00508	–	–	3.0	(32)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	muscle	14	0.0020 ± 0.002	0.0020	0.0070	1.0	(10)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	liver	14	0.0020 ± 0.001	0.0020	0.0050	0.4	(10)

Table 4 — Mercury (total Hg, no speciation in the underlying primaries reviewed here), mg/kg w.w.; 2011–2017 primary data:

Species	Country/Region	Tissue	n	Mean ± SD	Min	Max	UP (%)	Ref
Wild boar	Poland / Górny Śląsk	kidney	52	0.0890 ± 0.080	0.0050	0.3640	89.0	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / Pojezierze Mazurskie	kidney	60	0.0460 ± 0.035	0.0060	0.2020	46.0	(7)
Wild boar	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	kidney	3	0.0451 ± 0.0153	0.0342	0.0559	45.1	(1)
Wild boar	Croatia	muscle	233	0.00887	–	–	22.2	(19)
Wild boar	Croatia / Virovitica	muscle	44	0.0041 ± 0.0005	0.0010	0.0130	10.3	(9)
Wild boar	Croatia / Vukovar	muscle	43	0.0097 ± 0.0031	0.0010	0.1250	24.3	(9)
Wild boar	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	muscle	3	0.0023 ± 0.0015	0.0006	0.0032	5.8	(1)
Wild boar	Croatia	liver	65	0.0534	–	–	53.4	(19)
Wild boar	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	liver	3	0.0161 ± 0.0007	0.0155	0.0171	16.1	(1)
Roe deer	Poland / Górny Śląsk	kidney	–	0.0510 ± 0.013	–	–	127.5	(34)
Roe deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	–	0.0300 ± 0.010	–	–	75.0	(34)
Roe deer	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	kidney	3	0.0523 ± 0.0534	0.0214	0.1140	130.8	(1)
Roe deer	Croatia	muscle	31	0.00148	–	–	3.7	(19)
Roe deer	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	muscle	10	0.0070 ± 0.0056	0.0002	0.0172	17.5	(1)
Roe deer	Croatia	liver	31	0.00882	–	–	22.1	(19)
Roe deer	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	liver	10	0.0188 ± 0.015	0.0024	0.0450	47.0	(1)
Red deer	Poland / Warmia and Mazury	kidney	14	0.0480 ± 0.102	0.0020	0.3380	120.0	(10)
Red deer	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	kidney	4	0.1001 ± 0.0206	0.0802	0.1285	250.3	(1)
Red deer	Croatia	muscle	77	0.00371	–	–	9.3	(19)
Red deer	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	muscle	5	0.0011 ± 0.0007	0.0	0.0016	2.8	(1)
Red deer	Croatia	liver	82	0.00742	–	–	18.6	(19)
Red deer	Poland / Łódź voivodeship	liver	4	0.0067 ± 0.0033	0.0026	0.0106	16.8	(1)

Authors’ narrative summary of the tabulated data (Discussion, pages 205–208):

• Pb in muscle — highest mean is red deer Warmia/Mazury at 0.2200 mg/kg w.w. (ref 8; 220% of the EU pig-meat 0.10 mg/kg threshold); lowest is roe deer Pojezierze Mazurskie at 0.0120 mg/kg w.w. (ref 7; 12.0% UP).
• Pb in liver — highest is wild boar Viterbo at 0.3290 mg/kg w.w. (ref 6; 65.8% UP); lowest is roe deer Pojezierze Mazurskie at 0.0580 mg/kg w.w. (ref 7; 11.6% UP).
• Pb in kidney — among wild boar kidney cells, Upper Silesia is the highest (1.1900 mg/kg w.w., ref 7; 238% UP) and Vukovar Croatia is the lowest (0.0533 mg/kg w.w., ref 9; 10.7% UP).
• Cd in muscle — highest is red deer Warmia/Mazury at 0.1000 mg/kg w.w. (ref 8; 200% UP); lowest is wild boar at 0.0040 mg/kg w.w. (ref 7; 80% UP under the 0.05 mg/kg muscle threshold — UP is high in relative terms because the threshold is itself tight).
• Cd in liver and kidney of roe deer — highest reported as 6.4350 mg/kg w.w. (liver, Górny Śląsk, ref 7) and 80.2600 mg/kg w.w. (kidney, Górny Śląsk, ref 34); lowest 0.1150 mg/kg w.w. (liver, Pojezierze Mazurskie, ref 7) and 0.7980 mg/kg w.w. (kidney, Bełchatów, ref 34).
• As in muscle — only the roe deer Hungary/Eger cell exceeds the Polish 0.20 mg/kg national action level (0.2700 mg/kg w.w., ref 20; 135% UP). All other muscle-As means are below the threshold.
• Hg — kidney concentrations in roe deer (Górny Śląsk, Warmia/Mazury, Łódź) and red deer (Warmia/Mazury, Łódź) most consistently exceed the EU 2018/73 game-meat 0.04 mg/kg threshold for offal; red deer Łódź kidney at 0.1001 mg/kg w.w. (ref 1) is the highest mean reported (250.3% UP). Wild-boar offal benefits from the carve-out 0.10 mg/kg threshold, so wild-boar kidney Hg means at Górny Śląsk (0.089 mg/kg w.w., ref 7) and Pojezierze Mazurskie (0.046 mg/kg w.w., ref 7) sit below the wild-boar-offal cap despite exceeding the general game-offal cap.

The authors’ overall framing (page 208): “results indicate that meat and internal organs of hunted animals may be characterised by elevated content of toxic elements… exceedances concern selected elements, not all, and elevated quantities are observed in selected organs. Kidneys and liver of free-living mammals are particularly susceptible to accumulation, as confirmed by some of the reviewed results.”

Methods (brief)

Study type: Narrative literature review (Polish: artykuł przeglądowy). Not a systematic review — no PRISMA flow diagram, no stated inclusion or exclusion criteria, no search-string documentation, no inter-rater screening. The 41 references are a curated synthesis selected by the authors to illustrate the geographic spread and tissue-by-tissue concentration ranges for Pb, Cd, As, and Hg in three Central European game species, 2003–2017.

Authors’ contribution: Aggregation of per-tissue mean ± SD with min/max from the 41 primary studies into four comparative tables (Tables 1–4), addition of the “UP” column (percent of applicable EU or Polish regulatory threshold), and a narrative discussion contextualising the exceedances against EU 1881/2006 (Pb, Cd in pig meat/offal applied as a livestock proxy for game), the Polish Chief Veterinary Officer’s national action levels for As, and EU 2018/73 (amending EU 396/2005 wrt mercury MRLs).

Underlying analytical methods are not extracted here — each cell traces to a primary paper with its own method (AAS, ICP-MS, ICP-OES, AMA-254 CV-AAS for Hg, etc.). The review preserves attribution but does not re-summarise the methods. Curators relying on any individual cell for threshold work should consult the cited primary source for the analytical method, LOD/LOQ, and quality control.

Speciation discipline: The review reports total As (“arsen”) and total Hg (“rtęć”) without any claim of speciation that the underlying papers did not perform. The wiki page accordingly uses tAs and tHg in the metals: field, not iAs or MeHg. No Cr or Cr-VI is reported in this review; nickel, aluminium, tin, and uranium are not measured.

Basis: All values are fresh-mass (wet weight) — the source uses “mg/kg św. m.” throughout, where “św. m.” abbreviates “świeża masa” (fresh mass). No dry-weight conversion was attempted; the review does not report moisture corrections.

Implications

Certification: This review is useful for the game-meats product page as a single-source consolidation of 2003–2017 Polish, Croatian, and Central-European game data, but the row-fit is REVIEW not PRIMARY — any HMTc threshold work for game meats should anchor on the primary sources cited here (Durkalec 2015 ref 7, Lazarus 2014 ref 19, Bilandžić 2010 ref 3, Falandysz 2005 ref 8, Florijančić 2015 ref 9, Giżejewska 2017 ref 10, Kramárová 2005 refs 16 and 17, Piskorová 2003 ref 24, Albińska 2011 ref 1, Skibniewski 2015 ref 30, Szkoda 2012 ref 34, etc.), several of which are independently ingest candidates. The review’s reported “highest mean cell” values (kidney Cd at 80.26 mg/kg w.w., kidney Pb at 1.19 mg/kg w.w.) are dataset extremes from a single Upper-Silesia industrial-region study (Durkalec 2015) and are not representative of game meat broadly — using these as standards anchors without the underlying source’s sampling-frame context would overstate the typical exposure.

Courses: Useful as a case study in (1) the gap in EU regulation between farmed meat (with explicit Pb/Cd thresholds in EU 1881/2006) and game meat (excluded from those tables, so livestock thresholds are applied as a proxy by regulators and researchers); (2) the regional contrast within a single country — Upper Silesia / Górny Śląsk as a post-industrial Cd/Pb hotspot vs Pojezierze Mazurskie as a low-baseline lake-district reference — visible across the Pb, Cd, and Hg tables when read by region; (3) tissue-selective bioaccumulation patterns: kidney > liver > muscle for Cd and Hg, with Pb additionally elevated in muscle by ammunition-fragment contamination near the wound channel (a pattern this review does not analyse directly but the underlying primaries do, e.g. Gašparík 2017).

App: Provides 2003–2017 Polish and Central European wild-boar, roe deer, and red deer occurrence data spanning ~10 jurisdictional sub-regions within Poland and ~5 neighbouring countries. Per-tissue means with regional breakdowns are well-suited to the geographic_breakdown sub-field on the game-meats product page and on the meat-and-poultry / organ-meats ingredient pages — particularly useful as variance evidence for the seasonal-geographic-variance ingest stream, since the within-Poland regional spread for kidney Cd in roe deer (0.798 → 80.26 mg/kg w.w.) is a 100-fold range driven by industrial-region land use. The synthesis pass (Part 9) will be responsible for triangulating these review-tabulated cells against the primary sources before populating ingredient contamination_profile values, since several of the review’s cells are themselves drawn from the same Durkalec 2015 study.

Verification notes

• 2026-05-29 (Claude Opus 4.7, ingest-next-manual-fetch-pdf v2.0 — Phase 3 audit application): fresh-context audit subagent (Phase 2) returned PROMOTE with one ⚠️ presentation finding on Check 1 and one ⚠️ observation on Check 2. All other three checks (speciation/methods, Part 12 brand firewall, Part 2 wiki/HMTc firewall) returned clean. Numerical fidelity spot-check across all four tables (17 cells across Pb/Cd/As/Hg) returned exact matches with the source PDF. Applied findings:
  • ⚠️ (Check 1) Pb-in-kidney bullet in “Authors’ narrative summary” was ambiguously worded — read as if Upper Silesia showed both the highest and lowest cells. Rewrote as a wild-boar-kidney row comparison: highest at Upper Silesia, lowest at Vukovar Croatia. No values changed.
  • ⚠️ (Check 2) matrices: slugs (game-meat, wild-boar-muscle, etc.) cannot be machine-verified against the taxonomy snapshot because matrices vocabulary is not snapshot-tracked. Observation only — the matrices align with the Gašparík 2017 precedent and are declared in this Verification notes section. No correction applied; surfaced as a future taxonomy-snapshot enhancement candidate.
• 2026-05-29 (Claude Opus 4.7, ingest-next-manual-fetch-pdf v2.0 — Phase 1): NEW path source page written from the auto-fetched PDF in raw/manual-fetch/seasonal-geographic-variance/auto-fetched/. Three identity checks negative: DOI grep on 10.21521/mw.6202, raw_handle grep on auto-game-meats-cd-product-2019-10-21521-mw-6202, cite-key grep on mw-6202 / rudy — no existing wiki page.
• Paper is a peer-reviewed narrative literature review (Artykuł przeglądowy / Review per the journal section heading on page 203), not original research. Evidence tier B accordingly (per CLAUDE.md Part 13: review articles are B-tier; the underlying primaries that this review cites can be A-tier when ingested independently). The sample_n field is set to null because the review does not have its own sample — per-row sample sizes are owned by the underlying primary studies and recorded in the Key numbers tables.
• Speciation: paper reports total As and total Hg with no separation. Metals field uses tAs and tHg. Paper does not measure Cr, Ni, Al, Sn, U; those metals are correctly absent from the metals list. The Hg column is captioned “Rtęć” (Polish for mercury) and explicitly references the EU MRL framework for “rtęć” generally — no methylmercury speciation is claimed or measured in any of the reviewed primary cells.
• Brand firewall (Part 12): the paper names no commercial brand of game meat. The only proper nouns in the data tables are geographic regions, species, and bibliographic citations. No Part 12 issues.
• Wiki/HMTc firewall (Part 2): the paper is a literature review that discusses regulatory exceedances against existing EU and Polish thresholds; the source page reports those exceedance counts as the review reports them. No HMTc threshold proposals are made on this page; the Implications section is explicit that Cochrane-bar threshold work should anchor on the underlying primaries rather than on the review’s aggregated cells.
• Authors’ Polish-to-English translation is provided in the source’s English abstract (page 203). Spot-checked numerical fidelity of the abstract against the body tables: wild boar kidney Pb 1.1900 mg/kg ✓ (Table 1 ref 7 cell), roe deer kidney Pb 0.9060 mg/kg ✓ (Table 1 ref 7 cell), red deer muscle Pb 0.2200 mg/kg ✓ (Table 1 ref 8 cell), wild boar muscle Cd 0.0519 mg/kg ✓ (Table 2 ref 19 cell, Croatian pooled), red deer muscle Cd 0.1000 mg/kg ✓ (Table 2 ref 8 cell), kidney Cd extreme 49.5000 mg/kg (wild boar) and 80.2600 mg/kg (roe deer) and 4.9740 mg/kg (red deer) ✓✓✓ (Table 2 refs 7, 34, 10), muscle As roe deer Eger 0.2700 mg/kg ✓ (Table 3 ref 20), red deer kidney Hg 0.1001 mg/kg ✓ (Table 4 ref 1, Łódź voivodeship). All abstract values match the underlying tables.
• Reference-list cross-check: the review’s numbered citation (16) in Tables 2 (Cd, red deer kidney/liver, Slovakia) is Kramárová 2005 (“Concentration of cadmium in the liver and kidneys of some wild and farm animals”, Bull. Vet. Inst. Pulawy 49, 465–469), which is a different paper from Gašparík 2017 (already ingested as gasparik2017-wild-boar-slovakia-metals). Numbered citation (7) is Durkalec 2015 (Int. J. Environ. Res. 9, 205–212), which dominates the Polish data in this review (Górny Śląsk and Pojezierze Mazurskie cells across all four tables). Numbered citation (19) is Lazarus 2014 (Arh. Hig. Rada Toksikol. 65, 281–292), which dominates the Croatian data. These three underlying primaries are the main load-bearing sources for the review and are independent ingest candidates.
• Frontmatter slug check against wiki/ingredients/ and wiki/products/ (taxonomy snapshot): ingredients meat-and-poultry ✓, organ-meats ✓; product game-meats ✓ (matches the Cat 11 row 5 scaffold page); metals Pb, Cd, tAs, tHg all valid HMTc-vocabulary symbols; jurisdictions PL (Poland — primary), HR (Croatia), IT (Italy), SK (Slovakia), HU (Hungary), ES (Spain), EU (regulatory comparison framework).
• Matrices: game-meat (umbrella), wild-boar-muscle, wild-boar-liver, wild-boar-kidney, roe-deer-muscle, roe-deer-liver, roe-deer-kidney, red-deer-muscle, red-deer-liver, red-deer-kidney — broad per-species + per-tissue scope matches the review’s table structure. Wild-boar matrices align with the Gašparík 2017 page’s matrices list; roe-deer and red-deer matrices follow the same convention.
• Polish-to-English glossary used in this page (for downstream readers): dzik = wild boar (Sus scrofa); sarna = roe deer (Capreolus capreolus); jeleń = red deer (Cervus elaphus); nerki = kidneys; wątroba = liver; tkanka mięśniowa = muscle tissue; św. m. = świeża masa = fresh mass (wet weight); Górny Śląsk = Upper Silesia; Pojezierze Mazurskie = Masurian Lake District; województwo łódzkie = Łódź voivodeship; UP = udział procentowy = percentage of permitted level.
• The wiki/HMTc firewall (Part 2) requires the page to report what the literature supports without softening or strengthening. The kidney Cd values from Upper Silesia in this review (49.5 mg/kg in wild boar, 80.26 mg/kg in roe deer) are extreme outliers tied to a specific industrial region; the page surfaces them as the review surfaces them (with explicit region attribution) and the Implications section explicitly cautions against using these as anchors for game-meats certification without consulting the primary source. This is the literature-honest framing — neither softened nor strengthened.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• meat-and-poultry
• organ-meats
• game-meats
• lead
• cadmium
• arsenic-total
• mercury-total
• eu-1881-2006-contaminants-superseded
• eu-reg-2018-73-mercury-compounds-mrls

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.

Commit	Date	Description
12d44c4	2026-05-29	audit: eaglessmith2016-freshwater-fish-mercury-western-us-canada [revised]