You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
Heavy metals are of public health concern as its contamination in the environment would pose risks to both animal and human health. Cadmium and Lead are among the big 4 heavy metals and in high amounts, they could lead to functional impairment. The aqueous and vitreous humor, which are fluids found within the eyes, can be greatly used to assess the concentration of heavy metals as they provide a unique reflection of systemic exposure. Usually, heavy metals do not make up the composition of the aqueous and vitreous humor of these farm animals but when found present, could be used to estimate the time of death of an animal. The purpose of this study therefore was to compare the concentration of heavy metals in the aqueous and vitreous humor of different farm animals at varying intervals after death. A total of thirty (30) pairs of healthy eyes from freshly slaughtered livestock (Bovine, Porcine and Caprine) was obtained from different abattoirs in Edo state. The concentration in the aqueous and vitreous humor was evaluated at specific time intervals (0, 4, 8 and 24 hours) at the laboratory using the Atomic absorption Spectrophotometer. Using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient, a negative correlation between the cadmium ion concentration and post mortem intervals(r = -0.977, p = 0.023) was observed and it was realized that cadmium ion is significant (p<0.05) in estimating post mortem intervals of porcine eyes.
