The European Hare (Lepus europaeus) as a Biomonitor of Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) Occurrence in the Agro Biotope of Vojvodina, Serbia

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are pollutants and can be found in different biotopes. Hares, due to their natural habitat, numbers, range and choice of food are good bioindicators of the occurrence of heavy metals. Vojvodina, northern province of Republic of Serbia, has intensive agriculture with about 77.8% of agricultural land. In such agricultural biotope, we discovered that out of the two studied heavy metals in the liver of hare’s it seems that the occurrence of lead is more of the importance. In the majority of locations the cadmium concentrations were in the permitted level by Serbian legislative. However, the situation with the occurrence of lead was completely different. Only on the two out of seventeen locations average concentrations were in the permitted level. ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of two heavy metals, lead and cadmium, in European hare liver samples, collected in agro biotope of northern Serbian province Vojvodina. Heavy metals such as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) do not have any biological function in the animal body; however, they can be found due to the pollution in the environment. For the purpose of this study, in 196 samples from 17 different locations hare livers were analyzed for the occurrence of lead and cadmium. All samples were taken from hares harvested during the regular hunting season. The average value for lead in all analyzed samples was 884 µg/kg fresh weight (fw), with the range 59–3700 µg/kg fw. Only samples from two locations had the average concentration of lead which was within the permitted limit by the Serbian regulation. The average cadmium level in all samples was 243 µg/kg fw. The range of all samples was from 0 to 1414 µg/kg fw. Our research indicates that out of two investigated heavy metals, the occurrence of lead is more common and at a higher concentration in the agricultural development region of Vojvodina.