Sources and impact of arsenic on livestock in India and its amelioration through dietary strategy
2019
Dutta, T K | Satapathy, Debasish | Manda, D K | Chatterjee, A
Arsenic is one of the major toxic minerals that is naturally present in the environment and have significant adverse effect on animal health. Inorganic arsenic present in ground water enters the food chain through irrigation and ultimately affects the animal and human health. The presence of arsenic in groundwater in India is the most serious health hazard. Lower Gangetic region which includes West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh are in serious threat to arsenic contamination because of its geographic location. Ground water is the major source of arsenic toxicity, though arsenic also enters the animal body through feeds and fodder. Arsenic toxicity is a serious health hazard because of its oxidative damage capacity. Apart from that, it has the properties of carcinogenicity, neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Chronic arsenic toxicity in animals is more commonly seen than that of acute toxicity. Arsenic toxicity can be avoided by removing arsenic from ground water which is a very tough task. However, Government of India has taken some serious steps to reduce the arsenic load from ground water. Effects of arsenic toxicity, specifically, oxidative damage can be reduced in the animals by various dietary treatments such as Vitamin E, vitamin C, probiotics, minerals like Se, Zn, herbal drugs like turmeric, ginger etc. However, these treatments are reported to have very less effect on removing arsenic from body. Therefore, significant and continuous efforts are needed to develop new technologies to reduce the arsenic load from ground water as well as from animals.
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