Microplastic Contamination in Commercial Poultry Feed and Edible Chicken Tissues: An Emerging Environmental Concern

Abstract

Due to the widespread presence in food stuff like chicken, fish, meat, milk, sugar, salt, honey, microplastics (MPs) are an emerging environmental health concern nowadays. This study aimed to investigate the presence of MP particles in commercial poultry feed and edible tissues of chickens around Rajshahi City of Bangladesh. A total of 10 feed samples and 30 chicken meat samples (breast, liver, gizzard) from five different poultry farms were analysed. MPs were detected in all sample types and the detected particles were less than 1 mm and greater than 1 µm in size. A total of 758 MP particles were collected from 10 feed samples and 30 chicken samples (breast, liver and gizzard of 10 chickens of 3 different variant) belonging to 5 different poultry farms. A total of 187 MP particles were collected from 10 feed samples, with a mean of 18.7 ± 2.40 MPs / g of feed. A total of 571 MP particles were collected from 30 chicken samples (breast, liver and gizzard of 10 chickens of 3 different variant), with a mean of 0.95±0.03 MPs / g of chicken meat sample. Four different types of shapes of MP particles (fibres, fragments, pellets and sheets) were identified from the feed samples and the chicken meat samples. Among these, fibres were the dominant type of shapes in both sample types (feed and chicken meat). Six different colors (red, blue, green, yellow, violet, transparent) were observed in the MP particles collected from the feed and chicken meat samples. The predominant colors of particles collected from feed and chicken flesh samples were red and transparent, respectively. Detected polymers included polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE) , and polypropylene (PP). The study results reveal that poultry feed is a primary route of MP exposure and that edible parts of chickens are highly contaminated with MPs at levels comparable to global trends. This suggests potential human exposure through poultry consumption and highlights the need for regulatory monitoring and feed quality control.