heavy metals levels in forage grasses, leachate and lactating cows reared around lead slag dumpsites in nigeria

a field study was conducted around pb slag contaminated sites in ibadan, nigeria to assess theintake of trace metals by cows reared around the contaminated sites as indication of heavy metals contamination.levels of pb, cd, cu and zn in blood, milk and faeces were determined in 20 cows exposed to the sites and 20reference cows from uncontaminated areas. chemical analysis of pasture grasses and leachate from thecontaminated sites showed high levels of pb. range and mean levels of pb, cd, cu and zn in the forage grassesare: 209-899 (425 ± 79.0), nd-1.87 (0.94 ± 0.23), 4.01-8.78 (6.26 ± 0.62) and 17.4-202 (79.2 ± 23.5) mg/kgrespectively. the mean values of 8.81±0.06, 0.041±0.003, 0.20±0.01 and 1.00±0.004 mg/l were obtained l forleachate pb, cd, cu and zn. difference in blood and milk pb was highly significant (p