Homing Pigeons as Biomonitors of Atmospheric Metal Exposure and Health Effects to Promote Environment Sustainability

Jia Cui, Richard S. Halbrook, Shuying Zang (), Mary A. Masdo, Li Sun and Shuang Han
Additional contact information
Jia Cui: Heilongjiang Province Key Laboratory of Geographical Environment Monitoring and Spatial Information Service in Cold Regions, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China
Richard S. Halbrook: Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory and Department of Zoology (Emeritus), Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
Shuying Zang: Heilongjiang Province Key Laboratory of Geographical Environment Monitoring and Spatial Information Service in Cold Regions, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China
Mary A. Masdo: TG&G Wildlife Consulting, Carbondale, IL 62902, USA
Li Sun: Heilongjiang Province Key Laboratory of Geographical Environment Monitoring and Spatial Information Service in Cold Regions, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China
Shuang Han: Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: Homing pigeons are promising biomonitors of atmospheric metal pollution that may influence human health and environmental sustainability. However, exact interactions between respiratory and oral exposure and associations between atmospheric and pulmonary metal concentrations and effects are lacking. The current experiments measure differences in homing pigeon tissue cadmium, lead, and mercury concentrations due to diet and atmospheric exposure, and changes in pulmonary lesions associated with changing seasonal atmospheric metal concentrations. Forty 6-week-old homing pigeons were raised for 9 months in experiment 1, and seventy-five pigeons from different age groups were necropsied in winter, spring/summer, and autumn in experiment 2. Results indicate that atmospheric metal concentrations influence lung cadmium and lead concentrations, that atmospheric metal concentrations fluctuated seasonally and were greatest in fine particulate matter (PM 2.1 ) during winter, and the rate of lung cadmium and lead accumulations reflected temporal changes. There were significant correlations between lung metal concentrations and alveolar macrophage lesions. Time (10 months) and higher metal concentrations (266 ng/g for Cd and 16,442 ng/g for Pb) are both important factors in the production of pulmonary dust cells. Our experiments indicate that homing pigeons can provide specific information on diseases resulting from atmospheric pollution exposure and that these data can assist in public health decisions and environmental regulations to promote sustainable development of the environment.

Keywords: homing pigeons; heavy metals; biomonitor; air pollution; sustainability; respiratory exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7014/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7014/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:7014-:d:1457212

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().