In a rapidly urbanizing world, trace element pollution may represent a threat to human health and wildlife, and it is therefore crucial to assess both exposition levels and associated effects of trace element contamination on urban vertebrates. In this study, we investigated the impact of urbanization on trace element contamination and stress physiology in a wild bird species, the common blackb...

The value of estimates of trace element requirements or of data on tissue trace element content for identifying and controlling trace element-related disorders is often limited by inadequate data on the relationships of such criteria to physiological performance. Investigations of metabolic events initiating early pathological responses to deficiency are beginning to suggest more effective indi...

Trace elements (Fe, Mn, Al, Zn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Cd, Hg, and As) and stable isotope ratios (delta(13)C and delta(15)N) were analyzed in sediments, invertebrates, and fishes from a tropical coastal lagoon influenced by iron ore mining and processing activities to assess the differences in trace element accumulation patterns among species and to investigate relations with trophic levels of the org...

Since 1994 till today a few up to date have been made on the NRC (1994) recommendations for trace mineral requirements of broilers. The high prevalence of skeletal disorders in modern broilers could be a consequence of the uncoordinated growth rate and mineral nutrition. The commercial companies of broiler production often use a huge safety margin of trace minerals in feed formulation, which wi...

Recently, camouflaging geographical origin of agricultural products is a major problem in Japan. Therefore, we developed a distributed geographical origin identification system which identifies cultivated farms of vegetables by using trace element compositions of vegetables. This system stores compositions of trace, or very small quantities of elements into database which located on farming dis...

Deficiencies of iron and zinc are common worldwide. Various strategies have been used to combat these deficiencies including supplementation, food fortification and modification of food preparation and processing methods. A new possible strategy is to use biotechnology to improve trace element nutrition. Genetic engineering can be used in several ways; the most obvious is to increase the trace ...