Monitoring of pesticide residues in bovine and buffalo milk samples collected from Kafr El-Sheikh and El-Gharbia Governorates, Egypt

 


 
 




The widespread use of pesticides in agriculture, public health and industry leads to the accumulation of pesticides in the environment. Therefore, monitoring has been conducted to investigate the magnitude of contamination of bovine and buffalo milk with organochlorines, organophosphates and carbamates pesticide residues from Kafr El-Sheikh and El-Gharbia Governorates, Egypt. Milk samples from bovine and buffalo were collected monthly for a year period and determined by gas liquid chromatography with an electron capture detector (ECD) for organochlorine and nitrogen phosphorus detector (NPD) for organophosphate and carbamate pesticides. The results indicated that all milk samples (bovine and buffalo) were contaminated with organochlorine pesticides. The residue levels of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were much lower than maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides in milk, which reflects a degree of health safety for human. Residues of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides were below the detection limits for all samples. However, lindane and heptachlor were detected with higher concentrations than other detected compounds either in bovine or buffalo milk in all samples. The concentration levels of detected pesticides were clearly higher in buffalo milk than bovine milk. Comparison among the mean concentrations of detected pesticides between the two Governorates showed that the mean concentrations of detected pesticides in El-Gharbia were higher than in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate.