1 research outputs found
Arsenic Metabolites, Including <i>N</i>‑Acetyl-4-hydroxy-m-arsanilic Acid, in Chicken Litter from a Roxarsone-Feeding Study Involving 1600 Chickens
The poultry industry has used organoarsenicals, such as 3-nitro-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic
acid (Roxarsone, ROX), to prevent disease and to promote growth. Although
previous studies have analyzed arsenic species in chicken litter after
composting or after application to agricultural lands, it is not clear
what arsenic species were excreted by chickens before biotransformation
of arsenic species during composting. We describe here the identification
and quantitation of arsenic species in chicken litter repeatedly collected
on days 14, 24, 28, 30, and 35 of a Roxarsone-feeding study involving
1600 chickens of two strains. High performance liquid chromatography
separation with simultaneous detection by both inductively coupled
plasma mass spectrometry and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry
provided complementary information necessary for the identification
and quantitation of arsenic species. A new metabolite, <i>N</i>-acetyl-4-hydroxy-m-arsanilic acid (N-AHAA), was identified, and
it accounted for 3–12% of total arsenic. Speciation analyses
of litter samples collected from ROX-fed chickens on days 14, 24,
28, 30, and 35 showed the presence of N-AHAA, 3-amino-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic
acid (3-AHPAA), inorganic arsenite (As<sup>III</sup>), arsenate (As<sup>V</sup>), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA<sup>V</sup>), dimethylarsinic
acid (DMA<sup>V</sup>), and ROX. 3-AHPAA accounted for 3–19%
of the total arsenic. Inorganic arsenicals (the sum of As<sup>III</sup> and As<sup>V</sup>) comprised 2–6% (mean 3.5%) of total arsenic.
Our results on the detection of inorganic arsenicals, methylarsenicals,
3-AHPAA, and <i>N</i>-AHAA in the chicken litter support
recent findings that ROX is actually metabolized by the chicken or
its gut microbiome. The presence of the toxic metabolites in chicken
litter is environmentally relevant as chicken litter is commonly used
as fertilizer