Abstract
Ruminants? health is badly affected by the hazardous effects of heavy metals. Due to the scarcity of water, feed production in many regions is very low, so mostly ruminant animals are fed with wild plants of the region. The aim of this study was to evaluate the heavy metals concentration in native forage plants of Soon Valley, Khushab, Pakistan. Twenty forage plants, which are mostly consumed by the ruminants, were selected. The concentrations of heavy metals, cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn) were determined by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Results from heavy metals analysis revealed that the highest Co, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn contents were observed in Digitaria sanguinalis (0.30 mg/kg), Hordeum leporinum (15.64 mg/kg), Hordeum leporinum (36.46 mg/kg), Achnatherum hymenoides (26.04 mg/kg) and Hordeum leporinum (28.26 mg/kg), respectively. Statistically, the results of the analyses of variance (ANOVA) for Cu, Co, Fe, and Zn showed highly significant (p<0.05) difference in all plant samples. The results of this research showed that heavy metal accumulation values in the studied plants were in the normal natural concentration range.