The U.S. National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB) provides for the long term storage of well documented and preserved specimens representing several types of environmental matrices. A major part of this inventory consists of marine mammal tissues (e.g., blubber, liver, kidney, and muscle). Within the NBSB selected specimens are periodically analyzed for chlorinated hydrocarbons and trace ele...

Inorganic mercury was localized through autometallography (AMG) in kidney and liver of free-ranging, subsistence-harvested beluga (Delphinapterus leucus: n = 20) and bowhead (Balaena mysticetrus: n = 5) whales. AMG granules were not evident in bowhead tissues, confirming nominal mercury (Hg) concentrations (range = 0.011 to 0.038 microg/g ww for total Hg). In belugas, total Hg ranged from 0.30 ...

The objectives of this study were to to identify maternal characteristics associated with traditional food consumption and to examine food items associated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury body burden in pregnant Inuit women from Northern Québec. We interviewed women from three communities at mid-pregnancy and at 1 and 11 months postpartum. We measured PCBs, Hg, and selenium in...

In the early 80-ies of last century, there was a sharp decline in population Caspian beluga Russia. Its fishing prohibited, except for catching reproduction and scientific purposes. practice sturgeon breeding, method repeated use females males by obtaining sexual products vivo, as well growing breeders artificial conditions, has become widely put into practice. Against background an acute short...

the aim of this study was comparative study of the effects of two prebiotics, fructooligosaccharide (fos) and yeast based prebiotic (ybp), on intestinal microbiota of beluga (huso huso) juvenile. the study was done in a complete randomize design include feeding beluga with diet contain either 1 or 2% yeast based prebiotic or fructooligosaccharide as well as a control group (5 treatments in trip...

variation in growth, feed utilization and survival was assessed in sturgeon fingerlings of beluga fed different dietary lipid levels. all diets were iso-nitrogenous (protein = 45%) comprising 3.4-3.7 kcal digestible energy g-1. triplicate groups of 35 fingerling beluga with a mean initial wet weight of 2.14 ± 0.07 g (± sd) were fed with four experimental diets containing 6.7, 10.5, 14 and 17% c...

In this study, we evaluated concentrations of twelve essential and non-essential elements (As, Cd, Co, Cu, Pb, Mg, Mn, Hg, Mo, Se, Ag, and Zn) in tissues of bowhead (Balaena mysticetus) and beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) whales from arctic Alaska (USA) and northwestern Canada. Tissue samples were collected between 1983 and 1997, mostly in 1995-97. The essential elements are reported to develop ...