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Interactions between toxic and essential metals in cattle in Galicia

Abstract:

Susceptibility to toxic effects of metals is affected by many factors, the most important being the interactions between essential and toxic metals. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the interactions between toxic and essential metals in cattle from the rural, and relatively uncontaminated, region of Galicia. Cadmium was the toxic metal which had the greatest influence on the essential metals of copper and zinc. Cadmium showed negative correlations with copper and positive correlations with zinc; these interactions are likely to be the result of a competition for the cation binding sites of metallothioneins. In the case of lead, positive correlations with zinc were found in the liver, kidney and muscle; these associations have been shown previously in cattle but the possible mechanisms of interference still remain unknown. Arsenic and copper were positively associated in the liver, and this may indicate a copper interference on arsenic excretion at an organic level.