Chicken meat and its products are important for human diet
in all over the world because they contribute to solve the global
food problems and provide the well-known protein, fat, essential
amino acids, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients and they also
have a milder flavor which is more readily complemented with
flavoring and sauces. Environmental pollution by heavy metals is
considered as one of the most serious problems in the world over
the last few decades. Emissions of heavy metals to the environment
occur via a wide range of pathways, including air, water and soil,
threatening the animal and human health and quality of the
environment. Heavy metal toxicity could be present in different
ways depending on its route of ingestion, its chemical form, dose,
tissue affinity, age and sex, as well as whether exposure is acute or
chronic and. Nowadays, poultry feed is produced from various raw
materials such as fish by-products that can transfer heavy metals
to poultry feed in undesirable levels following collecting them from
contaminated waters, that may lead to increase of trace metals in
chicken and chicken products with a serious threat because of their
toxicity, bioaccumulation and biomagnifications in the food chain.
The main heavy metals of concern are lead, cadmium, copper,
mercury and arsenic which at even low concentrations pose
serious health hazard to primary and secondary consumers due
to bio magnifications. The effects of metals and metalloids are
partly due to the direct inhibition of enzymatic systems and, also
to the indirect alteration of the essential metal ion equilibrium.
Majority of the known metals and metalloids are very toxic to living
organisms and even those considered as essential can be toxic if
present in excess. Moreover, owing to their toxicity persistence and
tendency to accumulate, heavy metals when occurring in higher
concentrations, become severe toxic for human being and all
living organisms through alteration of physiological activities and
biochemical parameters in blood and tissues, and through defects
in cellular uptake mechanisms in the mammalian liver and kidney,
inhibiting hepatic and renal sulfate / bicarbonate transporter
causing sulfaturia.
Lead is an accumulative poison; it has hematological effect due
to the inhibition of hemoglobin synthesis and shortening life span
of circulating erythrocytes resulting in anemia. It has a toxic and
damage effects leading to reduction of the cognitive development
and intellectual performance in children; increase blood pressure;
damage of the brain and kidneys; cardiovascular and reproductive
diseases in adults.
Cadmium is used extensively in the mining and electroplating
industries and found in fertilizes and fungicides. It is a very toxic
heavy metal, which accumulates inside the body particularly
kidneys and chronic exposure may induce heart diseases, anemia,
skeletal weakness, depressed immune system response, kidney and
liver diseases; cancer and death.
Copper is an essential element for man and animals. It is
required for normal biological activity of several enzymes and
it added to poultry diets with manganese and zinc (premix) to
enhance their weight gain and disease prevention. Meanwhile,
ingestion of excessive doses of copper may lead to adverse health
problems, such as severe nausea, bloody diarrhea, hypotension,
liver and kidney damage.
Arsenic is a metalloid that occurs in inorganic and organic forms
and is found in the environment, both naturally occurring and as a
result of human activity. The inorganic forms of arsenic are more
toxic than organic ones. However, so far, most of the data regarding
arsenic occurrence in food, gathered under the official control of
foodstuff, is still reported as total arsenic, without differentiating
the various types of arsenic in the diet. It has a toxic effects includes
decrease in hemoglobin, packed cell volume, erythrocytic count
and total leukocytic counts, heterophils and lymphocytes.
DOI: 10.32474/SJFN.2019.02.000134
Keywords: Poultry Meat; Sulfaturia; Tissue Affinity; Anemia; Cancer; Biomagnification; Bioaccumulation; Enzymatic Systems;
Bloody Diarrhea; Hypotension
Volume 2 - Issue 2 Copyrights @ Fahim Shaltout.Scho J Food & NutrCitation: Fahim Shaltout. Poultry Meat. Scho J Food & Nutr. 2(2)-2019. SJFN.MS.ID.000134. DOI: 10.32474/SJFN.2019.02.000134. 210
The presence of the residual agro-chemicals in foods is
detrimental to human health and the accumulation of foreign
chemicals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, copper and mercury
in human system has been linked to immune-suppression,
hypersensitivity to chemical agents, liver and kidney damage,
breast cancer, reduce sperm count and infertility, respiratory
distress DNA alteration and death in extreme cases. Considering
the fact that chicken meat and its products can contain some toxic
heavy metals and therefore exposure to the toxic trace metals will
be gained through consumption of these products, the accurate
determination of them has been focused by researchers in last
decades, worldwide. |
