title: Chronic arsenic toxicity in sheep of Kurdistan province, western Iran.
abstract: After the detection of arsenic (As) toxicity in sheep from Ebrahim-abad and Babanazar villages in Kurdistan province, the concentration of this element in drinking water, cultivated soil, alfalfa hay, wool, and blood samples was evaluated. Total As concentrations ranged from 119 to 310 μg/L in drinking water, 46.70-819.20 mg/kg in soil 1.90-6.90 mg/kg in vegetation 1.56-10.79 mg/kg in sheep's wool, and 86.30-656 μg/L in blood samples. These very high As contents, in all parts of the biogeochemical cycle, exceed the recommended normal range for this element compared with a control area. Results indicate that As has moved through all compartments of the biogeochemical cycle by way of direct or indirect pathways. The present investigation illustrated decreased packed cell volume and hemoglobin in sheep from the As-contaminated zone. It was concluded that sheep from the contaminated areas suffer from anemia. Chronic As exposure of the liver was determined by liver function tests. For this purpose, blood aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) were measured. The results show that serum ALT and AST activities are increased significantly (p < 0.01) in the sheep population exposed to As in the contaminated zone. Moreover, chronic As exposure causes injury to hepatocytes and damages the liver.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, College of Sciences, Shiraz University, 71454, Shiraz, Iran, bkeshavarzi@shirazu.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Behnam
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Keshavarzi
authors.forename: Afsaneh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seradj
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Akbari
authors.forename: Farid
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Alireza Rahmani
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Shahraki
authors.forename: Mehrdad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pourjafar
mesh_terms: D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001151:Arsenic / Q000378:metabolism*; D020261:Arsenic Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012756:Sheep / Q000378:metabolism*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D001151:Arsenic