Assessment of Toxic Metal Uptake by Different Vegetables Grown on Soils Amended with Poultry Waste: Risk Assessment

The use of poultry waste (without proper treatment) as a potential fertilizer in agricultural soils have great concern to environment and human health, due to high levels of organic and inorganic toxicants, including heavy metals. Thus, the aim of this study was to monitor and assess bio-accumulation of heavy metals, cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) contained in soil amended with poultry waste (SPW) and compared with controls. The physico-chemical parameters and heavy metal concentration in control soil (CS), poultry waste (PW), and SPW samples was also determined. The comparison study between the test vegetables and controls showed that the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn in edible parts of chili pepper were found to be 0.057, 38.0, 61.9, 1.02, and 51.1 mg kg−1, respectively, while the levels of Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn were 0.14, 28.7, 138, 3.67, and 64.7 mg kg−1, respectively, in coriander grown on SPW. The uptakes of heavy metals in test vegetables were found to be 35.7 to 95.6 % higher as compared with control vegetables. Soil-to-vegetable transfer factor values for all heavy metals in test samples were higher than control samples (p < 0.05). The enrichment factor values were >1.05, which indicated that the source of heavy metal contamination in the studied area was anthropogenic.