Monitoring Technique For Heavy Metal Assessment In Different Locations of Punjab Using Feathers of Feral Pigeons (Columbia Livia)


 Heavy metals are one of the major environmental issues due to their large number of sources and their diligence. The amount of heavy metals in washed and unwashed feral pigeon feathers were investigated in this paper. The feathers were collected from five distant locations: Agronomy Farm Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Cold Storage Jalandhar Bypass, Cold Storage Mullanpur, Jalandhar FCI and Hoshiarpur FCI. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was used to analyse the concentration of heavy metals (Arsenic, Chromium, Cadmium and Lead). The high metal concentration in two areas (Hoshiarpur FCI and Jalandhar Bypass) as compare to other three areas is due to much more industries and anthropogenic activities. Mean values of As, Cd, Pb, and Cr were statistically significant different in the five collection sites. Metal concentrations are related to contact time or external exposure, as shown by significant differences in Cd, Pb, and Cr concentrations in washed and unwashed feathers. According to our analysis, bird’s feather can be used to quantify the environmental heavy metals. It can also be recommended that unwashed feathers were proficient to explore exogenous and endogenous absorption of the heavy metals.


Introduction
Birds occupy almost every habitat on earth, are present in large numbers and in different variety and forms. In India, Agriculture sector experience the indiscriminate use of pesticides which leads to mortality of many birds (Dhindsa et al 1994). As a result of urbanisation and industrialization, a signi cant number of contaminants have entered the atmosphere. Heavy metals are the pollutants that enter the food chain through manmade as well as natural sources, becoming very harmful to humans and animals (Swaileh and Sansur 2006). Metals enter the body through food and can be eliminated or accumulated. Metal elimination in birds occurs in feathers (Braune et al. 2002; Lewis and Furness 1991;Braune 1987). These pollutants include the pesticides and trace metals. Heavy metals are those elements that occur in small concentrations in the environment that is 5g/cm 3 (Adriano 1986). Metals (Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn) are considered to be essential micronutrients for human survival. The main sources of metals in the atmosphere are pesticides, fertilizers, oil combustion, emissions from the vehicles, and burning of industrial residues (Tavares and Carvalho 1992; Egreja Filho 1993).
Bioindicators for environmental contamination include sh, amphibians, terrestrial avians and beast (Fisk et al. 2005). Birds are useful bioindicators as they get exposure from a range of chemicals. Feathers can uptake metals by three ways; by having direct contact with air, water and soil, through food and by preening process (Bianchi 2008). Feathers are used for metal contamination because they can be easily collectable without harming the bird (Goede and de Bruin 1986; Burger 1993). Metals may be processed, collected or even excreted until they've been absorbed into the body (Dauwe et al. 2000). Heavy metal levels estimated from bird's feathers is the total of endogenous and exogenous fractions. Exogenous exposure is during preening and direct exposure to air, water and soil. Endogenous exposure is due to ingestion of heavy metals with food then absorbed into the blood from the intestine and accumulates in the liver and kidney (Wayers 2002) Pigeons are the birds that reside in urban areas, villages and other sites where there is plenty of food. Due to their higher respiratory rate, metabolic rate, reduced mobility, and feeding habit, pigeons are very attractive bioindicators (Nam and Lee 2006). Since, 1960s fringes have been used for metal biomonitoring (Burger and Gochfeld 1993), because this method is effective for metal quanti cation and collection of feathers does not harm the birds. Metals in bird feathers come from both endogenous and exogenous sources. Exogenous pollution occurs when feathers come into direct contact with the environment and endogenous contamination takes place by ingestion of heavy metals with food and get deposited in the feathers during their formation (Brait et al. 2010). In India heavy metal contamination studies on birds are limited. In this paper we quantify heavy metals in the washed and unwashed feathers of pigeon (C. livia) to determine the differences between the levels of metals in feathers.

Material And Method
Study area PUNJAB: Punjab state is located in North West India alongside of Pakistan from 29°32' North and 73°55' east. In the North it is surrounded by J & K, in the east by Himachal Pradesh and in the South by Haryana and Rajasthan. It is one of the smallest states of India with geographical area of 50,362 square kilometres. Pigeon feather samples were obtained from ve sites: Agronomy farm PAU, Jalandhar bypass Ludhiana, Mullanpur, Jalandhar FCI and Hoshiarpur FCI. The areas were selected because they were near to G.T. Road which accounts for tra c density and also due to industrial activities.
Pigeon feathers collection: Feather samples of Columba livia were collected from the nesting sites from above mentioned sites. Randomly twenty feather samples were collected without harming the birds and preserved them in zip lock bags by mentioning date and site of collection. They were placed in freezer till further analysis.
Statistical analysis: CPCS1 statistical software was used for statistical analysis and the differences were considered signi cant at P ≤ 0.05 probability. Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3 display the results of metal analysis in both types of feathers under study and then mean metal concentrations were compared (Table 4).

Lead
Lead (Pb) is the ubiquitous toxic metal present in low concentrations in the environments. Lead can originate from natural sources such as volcanos, erosion, disasters, ceramic industries and food industries.
In Figure 2 highest and lowest concentrations of lead were found at Jalandhar Bypass, Ludhiana. This is due to the air pollutants coming from vehicles emission and from the burning of fossil fuels. In washed feathers, collected at Jalandhar bypass, Agronomy farm PAU Ludhiana, Mullanpur, Jalandhar FCI, Hoshiarpur FCI has average contents of lead as 0.730, 0.104, 0.135, 0.121 and 0.394, respectively (Table 2) (Tables 2 and 3). Figure 2 shows the order of mean concentartions respectively Hoshiarpur FCI> Jalandhar bypass> Mullanpur> Jalandhar FCI> Agronomy farm, which can be explained by TPS accumulation in urbanised bird feathers. This demonstrates that chromium exposure in covered or less urbanised areas comes from the animals' diet.
Muralidharan (2018) reported higher level of chromium, magnesium and iron in the feathers of young house sparrow residing in Mumbai city, India.
Sahu et al (2019) revealed high chromium concentration that is 1.819 ppm in the feathers of pigeons (C. livia) at one site as compared to other selected sites at Ajmer city, Rajasthan.

Arsenic
Arsenic is a trace element found in the environment and in the living beings. It is released into environment through agricultural practices including the application of fertilizers and pesticides. The mean concentration of As at Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar FCI, Agronomy farm, cold storage Jalandhar bypass, cold storage Mullanpur, Ludhiana was 0.014 ppm, 0.004ppm, 0.008 ppm, 0.033, 0.01 ppm in washed feathers and was 0.02, 0.005, 0.009, 0.05 and 0.03 ppm in unwashed feathers, respectively.
Wiemeyer et al. (1980) studied about the concentration in the four species of owls and the highest concentration found among them was 0.40 ± 0.30 mg/kg, that is lower than the concentration of 5 mg/kg found in the USA in an area of possible As pollution. Very limited studies were there to use the feathers for quanti cation of arsenic, which makes it di cult to determine whether the amount of As recorded is signi cant or not (Burger et al. 2015 Dauwe et al. 2002Dauwe et al. , 2003. The heavy metals under study viz. Lead, chromium, and cadmium, are present in the atmosphere and are deposited in feathers of birds or reach the tissues through diet, according to our ndings. Finally, the study of pigeon feathers can be used to measure and track metal concentrations in the environment (C. livia). Unwashed feathers are preferable for identifying metals ingested through the diet as well as those absorbed through the atmosphere, while the other type of feathers are effective for quanti cation metal pollution which originate from food and atmosphere.   There is no signi cant difference at 5% probability level between means of each column which have one common letter at least There is no signi cant difference at 5% probability level between means of each column which have one common letter at least  Figure 1 Location of the state of Punjab (left) and study areas (right) which are Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana Note: The designations employed and the presentation of the material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Research Square concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. This map has been provided by the authors.