Using blood's Passer domesticus as a possible bio-indicator of urban heavy metals pollution in Rabat-Salé (Morocco)

This study aims to evaluate the impact of heavy metals such as zinc,lead and cadmium on the living organisms in industrial and urban areas,using for the first time in morocco,the blood of passer domesticus (house sparrow) as a bio-indicator of pollution by metals. for this purpose,a blood collection was performed on 50 house sparrows (passer domesticus) males and females,which were captured in five different sites of rabat,(ten specimens by site),according to the road traffic and industrial activities,the results obtained indicate the presence of metals in all the analyzed samples: for lead the highest levels were found in the town center > kamra> algae >agdal and the farm of allal bureau (rural site for control). for cadmium the most significant concentrations were detected in oulja > town center > agdal > kamra and a baharoui. as for the zinc the highest rates were registered in the form of sidi allal baharoui. these results suggest that we can have two possible sources of contamination by heavy metals: road traffic,and industrial activities.