Introduction to the study of cadmium fixation in Anguilla anguilla (L.)

Eels weighing an average of about 30 grams were kept without food in fresh-water aquaria containing approximately 10, 30 and 50 p.p.b. of cadmium in the form of cadmium chloride. In each case the evolution of the cadmium content in the water was monitored as a function of elapsed time. After dissection, the cadmium concentration in the principal organs of the eels (in p.p.b.) was determined and compared with their live weight. To do so, various methods were used for destruction of biological material and cadmium analysis i.e.: incineration in a 600 deg C furnace, incineration at low temperature in a jet of active oxygen, nitro-sulfuric mineralization followed by atomic absorption spectrophotometric analysis, and nitro-sulfuro-perchloric mineralization followed by inverse anodic redissolution. The results of these analyses raise a number of methodological questions, in that they differ according to the technique being used. The first content data essentially concern the cadmium content of eels (after nitro-sulfuric mineralization) kept in water containing 10 p.p.b. of cadmium: after 44 days the concentrations in the various organs continue to rise. The highest concentration is found in the spleen - heart - air bladder system (15200 ppb compared with 2680 ppb in the control group), followed - in an order which varies over time - by the kidneys, branchiae and liver; the digestive tract seems to concentrate cadmium more slowly