The use of free range animals for monitoring environmental health offers opportunities to detect exposure and assess the toxicological effects of pollutants in terrestrial ecosystems. Potential human health risk of dietary intake of metals and metalloid via consumption of offal and muscle of free range chicken, cattle and goats by the urban population in Benin City was evaluated. Muscle, gizzard, liver and kidney samples were analyzed for Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb concentrations using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) while Hg was determined using Hg analyzer. Mean concentrations of metals (mg/kg ww) varied significantly depending upon the tissues and animal species. Human health risk estimations for children and adults showed estimated daily intake (EDI) values of tissues below oral reference dose (RfD) threshold for non essential metals Cd, As, Pb and Hg thus strongly indicating no possible health risk via consumption of animal based food. Calculated Hazard quotient (THQ) was less than 1 (< 1) for all the metals analyzed for both adult and children. However, Cd and As had the highest value of THQ suggestive of possible health risk associated with continuous consumption of Cd and As contaminated animal based foods. Hazard Index (HI) for additive effect of metals was higher in chicken liver and gizzard for children and chicken liver for adults. Thus, HI indicated that chicken liver and gizzard may contribute significantly to adult and children dietary exposure to heavy metals. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed a clear species difference in metal accumulation between chickens and the ruminants. This study provides baseline data for future studies and also valuable evidence of anthropogenic impacts necessary to initiate national and international policies for control of heavy metal and metalloid content in food items.

使用自由放养的动物监测环境健康提供了机会来检测暴露并评估陆地生态系统中污染物的毒理作用。评估了贝宁市城市居民通过食用自由放养的鸡，牛和山羊的内​​脏和肌肉摄入饮食中的金属和准金属对人体健康的潜在风险。使用电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（ICP-MS）分析肌肉，g，肝和肾脏样品中的Cr，Mn，Fe，Co，Ni，Cu，Zn，As，Cd和Pb浓度，同时使用Hg分析仪测定Hg 。金属的平均浓度（mg / kg ww）根据组织和动物种类的不同而有很大差异。对儿童和成人的人类健康风险评估显示，非必需金属Cd，As，Pb和Hg的组织的每日摄入量（EDI）值低于口服参考剂量（RfD）阈值，因此强烈表明通过食用动物性食品不会造成健康风险。对于成年人和儿童，所有分析的金属的计算出的商数（THQ）均小于1（<1）。但是，Cd和As的THQ值最高，表明与连续食用受Cd和As污染的动物性食品有关的健康风险。儿童的鸡肝和g中，成人的鸡肝中，金属添加效果的危害指数（HI）较高。因此，HI表示鸡肝和胃g可能对成人和儿童饮食中重金属的摄入有显着影响。主成分分析（PCA）显示，小鸡和反刍动物之间金属积累的明显物种差异。这项研究为将来的研究提供了基准数据，也为启动控制食品中重金属和准金属含量的国家和国际政策所必需的人为影响提供了有价值的证据。