title: Arsenic Metabolites, Including N-Acetyl-4-hydroxy-m-arsanilic Acid, in Chicken Litter from a Roxarsone-Feeding Study Involving 1600 Chickens.
abstract: The poultry industry has used organoarsenicals, such as 3-nitro-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic acid (Roxarsone, ROX), to prevent disease and to promote growth. Although previous studies have analyzed arsenic species in chicken litter after composting or after application to agricultural lands, it is not clear what arsenic species were excreted by chickens before biotransformation of arsenic species during composting. We describe here the identification and quantitation of arsenic species in chicken litter repeatedly collected on days 14, 24, 28, 30, and 35 of a Roxarsone-feeding study involving 1600 chickens of two strains. High performance liquid chromatography separation with simultaneous detection by both inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry provided complementary information necessary for the identification and quantitation of arsenic species. A new metabolite, N-acetyl-4-hydroxy-m-arsanilic acid (N-AHAA), was identified, and it accounted for 3-12% of total arsenic. Speciation analyses of litter samples collected from ROX-fed chickens on days 14, 24, 28, 30, and 35 showed the presence of N-AHAA, 3-amino-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic acid (3-AHPAA), inorganic arsenite (As(III)), arsenate (As(V)), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA(V)), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA(V)), and ROX. 3-AHPAA accounted for 3-19% of the total arsenic. Inorganic arsenicals (the sum of As(III) and As(V)) comprised 2-6% (mean 3.5%) of total arsenic. Our results on the detection of inorganic arsenicals, methylarsenicals, 3-AHPAA, and N-AHAA in the chicken litter support recent findings that ROX is actually metabolized by the chicken or its gut microbiome. The presence of the toxic metabolites in chicken litter is environmentally relevant as chicken litter is commonly used as fertilizer.
authors.forename: Zonglin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University , Wuhan, China 430072.
authors.forename: Hanyong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Xiufen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Qingqing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Rongfu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University , Wuhan, China 430072.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta , Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6G 2E3.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kachanoski
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta , Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6G 2P5.
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zuidhof
authors.forename: X Chris
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Le
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001147:Arsanilic Acid; D001151:Arsenic; D001152:Arsenicals; D002101:Cacodylic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D002645:Chickens / Q000378:metabolism; D012406:Roxarsone
chemical_list: D001152:Arsenicals; D002101:Cacodylic Acid; D012406:Roxarsone; D001151:Arsenic; D001147:Arsanilic Acid