Comparison of Tissue Distributions of Heavy Metals in Birds in Japan and Korea

Abstract

Comparisons of the tissue distribution of heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Hg) were made in twenty species of birds in Japan and Korea during 1974-1986. The inter-tissue distribution patterns of heavy metals were similar among bird species, regardless of their habitats and food habits. The heavy metals concentrations were generally high in the liver and feathers and low in the muscle; and the levels of manganese, zinc and lead were high in bone, and cadmium high in kidney. However, iron and manganese levels in the feathers of the seabirds, Larus crassirostris, Lunda cirrhata, and Puffinus griseus, were considerably low. And hepatic iron and copper levels as well as bone manganese in Anas platyrhynchos and A. crecca, and bone zinc in the carnivorous birds, Mulvus migrans, Falco tinnunculus and Buteo buteo, were markedly high compared with those of other species. Furthermore, mercury levels in Milvus migrans and Larus crassirostris were higher in the liver than in the kidneys, suggesting differences among species in chemical form of mercury intaked via food and/or the metabolic turnover of hepatic mercury. Based upon these results, the usefulness of the inter-tissue distribution pattern of heavy metals was discussed in ecological and toxicological comparisons of heavy metal levels in birds.