Dioxin levels in meat samples of selected free-living and farmed cervids

Validation characteristic		Validation results
Validation characteristic		PCDD/PCDFs	dl-PCBs	ndl-PCBs
Linearity		pg WHO-TEQ/g fat		ng/g fat
	Range	0.10–500.0	0.25–400.0	0.21–800.0
	Relative response rate	0.907–1.142	1.014–1.182	0.974–1.258
Limit of detection		pg/g		ng/g
Limit of detection		0.02	0.40	0.001
Limit of quantification		pg/g		ng/g
Limit of quantification		0.05	1.00	0.003
Recovery (%)		60.0–120.0		60.0–120.0
Expanded uncertainty (k = 2) (%)		16.38	16.47	22.67

1 PCDD/PCDFs – polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans; dl-PCBs – dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls; ndl-PCBs – non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls

Table 2.

Levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the muscle tissue of free-living and farmed cervids

		PCDD/PCDFs	dl-PCBs	PCDD/PCDF/dl-PCBs	ndl-PCBs
		(pg WHO-TEQ/g fat)			(ng/g fat)
Free-living cervids (n = 23)	X_avr ± SD	2.53 ± 1.42	2.24 ± 1.58	4.77 ± 2.92	5.69 ± 3.57
Free-living cervids (n = 23)	range	0.36–5.55	0.43–5.50	0.79–10.80	1.57–14.75
Farmed cervids (n = 11)	X_avr ± SD	0.79 ± 0.73	1.06 ± 0.72	1.85 ± 1.21	3.10 ± 1.68
Farmed cervids (n = 11)	range	0.23–2.50	0.23–2.80	0.53–3.97	1.38–6.51
Maximum levels (Commission Regulation 2023/915 EU)		3.0	-	7.5	-

1 X_avr – average concentration; PCDD/PCDFs – polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans; dl – dioxin-like; ndl – non-dioxin-like; WHO-TEQ – World Health Organization toxic equivalency quotient; SD – standard deviation

Table 3.

Theoretical intake of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) (expressed as a percentage of the tolerable weekly intake – TWI) by adults and children with muscle tissue from free-living and farmed cervids based on mean and 97.5th percentile (P97.5) values of results

		PCDD/F/dl-PCBs pg WHO-TEQ/g wet weight	Intake (% TWI)
			Occasionally		Frequent		Very common
			Adult	Child	Adult	Child	Adult	Child
Free-living cervids	X_avr	0.34	1.89	2.87	11.0	17.0	84.0	127.0
Free-living cervids	P97.5	0.54	2.94	4.62	18.0	27.0	133.0	202.0
Farmed cervids	X_avr	0.09	0.52	0.78	2.0	3.0	23.0	35.0
Farmed cervids	P97.5	0.26	1.45	2.20	9.0	13.0	65.0	99.0

1 X_avr – average consumption; WHO-TEQ – World Health Organization toxic equivalency quotient

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2025-0037 | Journal eISSN: 2450-8608 (formerly 2300-3235)

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Language: English

Page range: 381 - 386

Submitted on: Dec 3, 2024

Accepted on: Aug 11, 2025

Published on: Aug 16, 2025

Published by: National Veterinary Research Institute in Pulawy

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

dioxins,

game meat,

persistent organic pollutants,

risk assessment

Related subjects:

Life sciences,

Molecular biology,

Microbiology and virology,

Life sciences, other,

Medicine,

Veterinary medicine

© 2025 Małgorzata Warenik-Bany, Szczepan Mikołajczyk, Marek Pajurek, Sebastian Maszewski, Ewelina Bigoraj, published by National Veterinary Research Institute in Pulawy
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 69 (2025): Issue 3 (September 2025)

Dioxin levels in meat samples of selected free-living and farmed cervids

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Table 1.

Table 2.

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