Evaluation of lead concentration in pasture and milk: A possible risk for livestock and public health

This experiment was conducted to investigate the lead (pb) status of soil,forage and milk of sahiwal breed cows from october 2010 through january 2011. soil,forage and milk were sampled on monthly basis,four times during the investigation. an atomic absorption spectrophotometer coupled with a graphite furnace technique was used to determine pb concentrations. concentrations of pb in soil ranged from 1.2 to 3.5 mg/kg,forage 0.33 to 0.70 mg/kg and in mik 0.018 to 0.050 mg/l,respectively. pb concentration decreased gradually in soil,forage and milk with sampling time. pb concentrations in both soil and forage appeared to be lower than those of permissible limits reported in the literature. however,cow milk pb concentration was slightly higher than the permissible limit which may be anticipated to be hazardous for public health in addition to the health of suckling neonate animals. this can be mainly due to greater pollution of the environment (air,water and soil). further studies are therefore necessary to evaluate the pb and probably other heavy metals status in the soil,water,forages and milk in larger sample numbers from the region. copyright 2013 zoological society of pakistan.