Heavy metals in white-tailed deer living near a zinc smelter in Pennsylvania

Louis Sileo; W. Nelson Beyer

doi:10.7589/0090-3558-21.3.289

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Heavy metals in white-tailed deer living near a zinc smelter in Pennsylvania

Louis Sileo·W. Nelson Beyer

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Abstract

White-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann)) shot within 20 km of the zinc smelters in the Palmerton, Pennsylvania area contained extremely high renal concentrations of cadmium (372 ppm dry weight (dw)) and zinc (600 ppm dw). The deer with the highest renal zinc concentration was shot 4 km from the smelters and had joint lesions similar to those seen in zinc-poisoned horses from the same area. The highest concentrations of lead in both hard and soft tissues were relatively low, 10.9 ppm dw in a sample of teeth, 17.4 ppm dw in a metacarpus, and 4.9 ppm dw in a kidney.

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Journal of Wildlife Diseases Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 40.78950978441435° to 40.81471866276641° latitude; -75.65803527832031° to -75.57546615600586° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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Louis Sileo, W. Nelson Beyer. 1985. Heavy metals in white-tailed deer living near a zinc smelter in Pennsylvania. https://doi.org/10.7589/0090-3558-21.3.289

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