Chlordecone disappearance in tissues of growing goats after a one month decontamination period—effect of body fatness on chlordecone retention

Chlordecone (CLD) is an organochlorine pesticide whose extended use led to the contamination of at least 20 % of agricultural soils from the French West Indies. Livestock reared on polluted areas are involuntary contaminated by CLD and their level of contamination may exceed the threshold values set by the European Union. Thus, characterizing the CLD behaviour in farm animals appear as a real issue in terms of food safety for local populations. The aim of this experiment was (i) to characterize the CLD disappearance in various tissues after exposure cessation and (ii) to evaluate the potential effect of body fatness on this process. Two groups of eight growing goats were submitted to either a basal diet or a high energy diet for 50 days before being intravenously contaminated with 1 mg CLD kg⁻¹ body weight. Two days after CLD contamination, half of the kids of each experimental group were slaughtered in order to determine pollutant levels in the serum, liver, adipose tissues, and empty carcass. The remaining animals were submitted to a 30-day decontamination period before slaughtering and measurements as described above. The implemented nutritional plan resulted in both groups of kids with significant differences in terms of body fatness. CLD was mainly concentrated in the liver of animals as described in the literature. It was found also in kids’ empty carcass and adipose tissues; however its levels in the empty carcass (muscles and bones) were unexpected since they were higher than in fat. These results indicate that the lipophilic pollutant CLD is found mainly in liver but also in muscles and fat. Concerning the animals’ depuration, a 30-d decontamination period was sufficient to observe a decrease of CLD levels by more than 75 % in both experimental groups and neither CLD concentrations nor CLD amounts were significantly affected by kids’ body fatness.