Influence of different area, sex and age on blood lead levels in goats

The purpose of this study was to assess the lead levels in blood of goats of different age and sex groups that reared in different areas (industrial, urban, rural) of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. A total of 67 blood samples were collected. All the samples were subjected for acid digestion in Microwave digester followed by estimation of lead levels by using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). In this study, mean lead level was observed upto 0.772±0.077 ppm which was higher than the acceptable limit of this metal. 25% of goats showed toxic concentration of lead in their blood ranged between 1 to 5 ppm. Statistically high lead level in blood was recorded in industrial areas as compared to the goats of rural areas. There was no statistical significant difference observed between blood lead concentration of goats of different sex and age groups.