determination of persistent organic pollutants residues in liver of golden jackal (canis aureus) collected from central coastline of iran

liver samples from golden jackal (canis aureus) were collected from noor in the central coastline mazandaran province. the samples of this study were killed in road accidents. levels of persistent organochlorine pollutants (pops) including polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs), ddts and metabolites, hexachlorocyclohexanes (hchs) and metabolites, hexachlorobenzene (hcb), aldrin and dieldrin were measured in liver tissue samples by gas chromatography using electron capture detection (gc-ecd). the compound found at the highest concentration was pcbs (58.13  ±41.51 ng/g), followed by the contaminants  hchs (10.58  ±10.88 ng/g), ddts(4.62  ±6.17 ng/g), hcb (0.60  ±0.81 ng/g), aldrin (0.54  ±0.78 ng/g) and dieldrin (0.13  ±0.18 ng/g). there were no significant differences between sexes. also no significant differences (0.095 < p < 0.904) were found between pops levels in liver with weight and length of body. pops levels were generally low; and do not approach levels that are known to potentially cause adverse effects in animals.