Abstract
Exposure to metals remains an important public health concern. The present study is a comprehensive field study to determine the concentrations of Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd, Co, Pb and Cr in water samples and in the livers of deceased freshwater turtles collected from pre-determined sampling sites of the Ravi and Chenab rivers. In total, 35 deceased freshwater turtles were collected from the sampling sites, and liver samples were collected and immediately stored at -20 degrees C prior to analysis. Heavy metals concentrations of Cu, Zn and Cd (0.073, 0.169 and 0.0042 mg/L-1) in water samples were collected from the Ravi and (0.084, 0.145 and 0.0041 mg/L-1) from the Chenab. Concentrations of Ni, Co, Pb and Cr were significantly lower (0.045, 0.018, 0.06 and 0.121 mg/L-1) in the Ravi while (0.045, 0.018, 0.064 and 0.121 mg/L-1) in the Chenab were significantly higher. Species-wise mean concentrations of all heavy metals were non-significant (P> 0.05). The mean concentrations of Cu and Ni varied significantly (P< 0.01) in the liver samples from the Ravi and Chenab. Regardless of the sampling sites, the mean concentrations of Cu and Pb recorded a maximum in K. Smithi (26.54 +/- 4.53 and 3.85 +/- 0.43 mg/Kg(-1), respectively) Zn in K. Tecta (42.48 +/- 4.06 mg/Kg(-1)) and Ni, Cd and Co in L. Punctata. Among the studied metals, Zn was recorded as most abundant (39.73 +/- 2.28 mg Kg(-1)) and Cd concentration was found to be minimum (0.188 +/- 0.017 mg Kg(-1)) in freshwater turtles collected from both sampling sites.