Overview
This six-year monitoring study measured mercury, cadmium and lead in feed, barn dust and the muscle, liver and kidney of feeder pigs from three farms in an industrial district of the Czech Republic (lignite mines, a coal power plant). Lead was the main concern: the authors report that 16 muscle samples exceeded the lead limit. Mercury rose sharply in liver and kidney in 1998 because of an isolated contamination of two pigs.
Key numbers
- Pig muscle lead, annual means: 0.124 mg/kg (1994, n = 14) to 0.047 mg/kg (1999, n = 6); 1997 maximum 0.230 mg/kg (Table 3, p. 135).
- Pig muscle cadmium annual means 0.005 to 0.014 mg/kg; mercury 0.001 to 0.009 mg/kg (Tables 1-2, p. 134).
- Liver mercury 1998: mean 0.064 mg/kg, max 0.227; kidney mercury 1998: mean 0.114, max 0.396 mg/kg (Table 1).
Methods (brief)
Ten-gram tissue homogenates were dry ashed with magnesium nitrate up to 470 °C, dissolved in nitric acid and read by flame AAS for cadmium and lead; mercury was measured with an AMA mercury analyser. Stated sensitivity was 0.001 (mercury), 0.005 (cadmium) and 0.05 mg/kg (lead). No reference materials or recoveries are reported.
Evidence Fitness
Farm-sampled pigs from a polluted industrial district, with small yearly groups (3 to 14 animals) and no stated basis or QA beyond reproducibility. Kidney cadmium for 1994 (mean 1.147, max 0.212) is internally inconsistent, some lead values fall below the stated sensitivity, and the abstract’s kidney-lead years do not match Table 3; these are flagged. Raw farm pig muscle is a proxy for pork-chop (no retail or cooked chop was measured), so that page is not linked.