Abstract
Two cyprinid fish species, bleak (Alburnus alburnus (Linnaeus, 1758)) and vimba bream (Vimba vimba (Linnaeus, 1758)) from the Bulgarian part of the Danube River (Lower Danube) were examined for cadmium content in their tissues and organs. The aim of the present study is to establish the content of cadmium in the water, sediments, skin, muscles, and liver of Alburnus alburnus and Vimba vimba. In the tissues and organs of the studied fish species – A. alburnus and V. vimba, the content of cadmium in samples of the liver was higher than in the muscle and skin samples, and ranged as follows: CCd/Liver>CCd/Skin>CCd/Muscles (for both fish species).
The cadmium content in the analyzed samples of muscles of V. vimba was above the maximum acceptable concentrations. The obtained values for the content of cadmium in the muscle samples of A. alburnus were found to be more than 4 times lower than the obtained values for the content of cadmium in the muscle samples of V. vimba. In general, the content of cadmium in the tissues and organs of A. alburnus was lower than the content of cadmium in the tissues and organs of Vimba vimba. Significant correlations (p<0.05) were fixed for Vimba vimba for the relationships between СCd/Liver – СCd/Water and СCd/Liver – СCd/Sediments.
Keywords: cadmium, Alburnus alburnus, Vimba vimba, The Danube River, Bulgaria