Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXVI, Issue 2
Written by Cezara-Georgiana VINȚE, Adina Lia LONGODOR, Aurelia COROIAN
Agricultural practice, the methods used in increasing and feeding of animals, may be a main factor in the appearance of harmful elements in the products obtained from them. Due to the high consumption of milk worldwide, the question has arisen of determining the compounds that can be harmful to consumers, such as the presence of heavy metals. Heavy metals are toxic to the human body, consumed even in small proportions, and their sources in milk, its products or by-products, can be both natural and anthropogenic, as the main sources being water used in irrigation, agricultural practices, air pollution and contaminated feed used in the ration of animals. The most common heavy metals determined in fresh donkey milk are iron, copper, magnesium, lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic and chromium, their determination being possible both by means of standard methods and by means of the mass spectrometry method. The determination of these toxic compounds which may be present in milk is of importance, in particular as regards babies and children, on which they may have a carcinogenic effect.
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