Overview
Saleh and colleagues measured nine elements by AAS in raw camel milk, camel urine and camel feed from five farms in Giade, Bauchi State. Each farm’s milk result is a mean of three replicate determinations, in mg/dm3 (mg/L). Only the milk results are food findings; urine and feed are described for context.
Key numbers
- Lead in camel milk: 0.007 (Goburawa) to 0.023 ± 0.007 mg/dm3 (Isawa) (Table 1).
- Cadmium: 0.022 (Isawa) to 0.045 mg/dm3 (Uzum), all above the 0.02 mg/dm3 limit the authors cite (Table 1).
- Arsenic: 0.004 (Faguji) to 0.092 ± 0.001 mg/dm3 (Goburawa); mercury 0.002 to 0.140 ± 0.001 mg/dm3 (Jahuri) (Table 1).
- Nickel: 0.004 to 0.020 mg/dm3 (Table 1).
Methods (brief)
Fifty cm3 of milk was digested with hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide (3:1:1) at 80 °C, made to 100 cm3 and read by AAS (Wincon 320N) in triplicate. Blanks and spiked samples were run, but recoveries, detection limits and reference materials are not reported.
Evidence Fitness
Direct evidence for raw camel milk, but each farm value rests on n = 3, which the methods describe as replicate determinations, so the SDs likely reflect analytical repeatability rather than variation between animals. No detection limits or recoveries are given, which matters because several values (for example mercury 0.002 mg/dm3 and arsenic 0.004 mg/dm3 by AAS) are near typical flame AAS detection capability. The abstract and Table 1 disagree for iron (ten-fold) and the copper maximum; Table 1 is used. Results are per litre and are not converted.