Abstract
The aim of the investigation was the assessment of vanadium concentrations in the hair of domestic cats kept as accompanying animals and cats living in the urban environment as the feral cats. The investigation material comprised hair samples collected from 20 animals from the Warsaw agglomeration region. The first group included five males and fivefe males kept at home. The second group (five males and fivefe males) represented feral animals. Hair samples were collected from the middle abdominal region prior to the routine surgical procedures. Vanadium content was determined using the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry method. The effect of the living environment on vanadium content in the hair of the investigated animals was observed. The mean value in the group of the free-living animals amounted to 0.26 mg • kg−1 for males and 0.20 mg • kg−1 for females. In the group of cats accompanying humans, these values amounted to 0.175 and 0.17 mg • kg−1, respectively. The mean vanadium content was higher in young females than in older ones. In males, this value was higher in the group of older animals.