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In vitro assessment of mineral blocks as a cost-effective measure to reduce oral bioavailability of lead (Pb) in livestock

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Abstract

Soil contamination in former mining districts is a persistent problem resulting from the historic lack of legal requirements as regards land restoration after mine closures. Much of this polluted land is currently being used worldwide for livestock and big game production, with the consequent health risks for the animals exposed and the subsequent threats to food safety. Soil remediation and restoration may be unfeasible or difficult to accomplish in the short term when pollution affects large territories and other alternatives must, therefore, be explored in order to reduce the probability of grazing animals being exposed to this contamination. In this paper, we study the use of mineral blocks (MBs) as a potential alternative by which to reduce the oral bioavailability of lead (Pb) in polluted soils by means of a simplified in vitro assay simulating gastrointestinal pH conditions. Experiments were carried out with twelve commercial MBs of different compositions in order to identify the most useful to be tested in further in vivo bioavailability studies. The results showed that one of them reduced the bioaccessibility of Pb from polluted soil by 88.2% and 75.9% under gastric and intestinal conditions, respectively, when compared with assays containing only polluted soil without MBs. The MB in question had the highest phosphorus content (7%) and one of the highest calcium contents (10%) of all those tested. Furthermore, negative correlations were detected between the content of calcium and phosphorus in the MBs and the percentage of bioaccessible Pb under gastric conditions, and between phosphorus and bioaccessible Pb under intestinal conditions. The use of MBs with a high phosphorus and calcium content should consequently be tested in vivo as a cost-effective (€ 0.6–1.5/sheep/month) tool by which to reduce the bioavailability of Pb for extensive grazing livestock reared in contaminated areas.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ines Sánchez and Pablo Camarero for their help with the laboratory work.

Funding

This study and JPC were supported by a Research Project financed by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (JCCM) Regional Plan (PPII-2014-028). MMH was supported by a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral research contract provided by the Spanish Government (IJCI-2014-20171) and currently by the JCCM and the European Regional Development Fund (SBPLY/17/180501/000514). JRE was supported by a Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) postdoctoral contract (2017/11747) from the JCCM and currently by a contract as research staff within the European Project Urban Forest Innovation Lab (UFIL) Cuenca.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC – CSIC, UCLM, JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Jennifer Pareja-Carrera, Jaime Rodríguez-Estival, Rafael Mateo & Mónica Martinez-Haro

  2. Instituto de Tecnología, Construcción y Telecomunicaciones (ITct), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Calle de Pedro Almodovar 1, 16002, Cuenca, Spain

    Jaime Rodríguez-Estival

  3. Instituto Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Agroalimentario y Forestal (IRIAF), CIAG del Chaparrillo, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Mónica Martinez-Haro

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  1. Jennifer Pareja-Carrera
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Correspondence to Jennifer Pareja-Carrera.

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Pareja-Carrera, J., Rodríguez-Estival, J., Mateo, R. et al. In vitro assessment of mineral blocks as a cost-effective measure to reduce oral bioavailability of lead (Pb) in livestock. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 25563–25571 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08898-8

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