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. 2025 Feb 25;5(4):454-460.
doi: 10.1021/acsagscitech.4c00338. eCollection 2025 Apr 21.

Evaluation of the Accumulation, Distribution, and Excretion of Different Silver Species in Tissues and Feces from Chickens and Pigs Fed with Silver-Based Nanomaterial Supplemented Feeds

Khaoula Ben-Jeddou  1 , Mariam Bakir  1 , Maria S Jimenez  1 , Manuel Fondevila  2 , Dino Metarapi  3 , Martin Šala  3 , Johannes T van Elteren  3 , Francisco Laborda  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of the Accumulation, Distribution, and Excretion of Different Silver Species in Tissues and Feces from Chickens and Pigs Fed with Silver-Based Nanomaterial Supplemented Feeds

Khaoula Ben-Jeddou et al. ACS Agric Sci Technol. .

Abstract

On the basis of two in vivo experiments involving pigs and chickens, where animals were fed with feeds supplemented with a silver-kaolin nanomaterial as a growth promoter, the fate of the ingested silver, its accumulation in different tissues and excretion, and its occurrence as ionic or particulate forms has been studied. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in conventional mode was used for the quantitative determination of total silver in the different tissues and feces. Results showed that silver accumulated in liver (0.15-5 mg kg-1) and kidney (0.4 mg kg-1) but not in muscle, while the major part of silver was eliminated through the feces (75-1026 mg kg-1). Laser ablation coupled to ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) in a conventional mode revealed a preferential accumulation of silver in the outer layer of the liver lobules in pigs. LA-ICP-MS in single particle mode (LA-SP-ICP-MS) was applied to the analysis of tissues and feces to obtain speciation information about the presence of ionic and particulate silver in the samples. Silver found in the pig liver was present in ionic form, confirming that silver was absorbed in the intestine in this form. The analysis of pig feces confirmed the presence of both ionic silver and particles containing silver with average masses of 520 ag (equivalent to solid spherical silver nanoparticles of 50 nm diameter).

Keywords: accumulation; excretion; laser ablation-SP-ICP-MS; pigs and chickens; silver nanomaterial.

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Figures

1
1
Total silver maps of pig livers from group P2 measured by LA-ICP-MS.
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2
Total silver maps of pig feces from P1 (a) and P2 (b) groups measured by LA-ICP-MS.
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Ag-containing particles (a) and Ag­(I) (b) mappings of pig feces from P2 group measured by LA-SP-ICP-MS.
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4
Size distribution of Ag-containing particles found in pig feces expressed as equivalent diameters and measured by LA-SP-ICP-MS
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