Lead and Zinc Contamination in Clarias Lazera Fish from Local Markets at Khartoum State, Sudan

Background and Objective: Fishes have been found to be good bio-indicators of heavy metal contamination in aquatic ecosystems. These metals have many harmful impacts on human health. This study aims to assess Lead and Zinc contamination in Clarias Lazera fish from Local Markets at Khartoum State from April 2019 to December 2020.

Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional laboratory based study, where sample size was (n=50); divided into two markets “Almourada market (n= 25) and Almarkazi market (n= 25)” were collected randomly and statistically. All data were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Results: The results revealed that different concentrations of contamination levels of Lead and Zinc in all samples examined. The highest contamination (1.740 mg/kg dry weight) of Lead was found in sample taken from Almarkazi market, also Zinc was (5.280 mg/kg dry weight) in sample taken from Almourada market. The Maximum Permissible Limit stated by Codex Alimentarius Commission is (0.3 mg/kg dry weight for both Zinc and Lead), which mean that fish types investigated have exceeded the stated permissible level.

Conclusion: The study confirmed that the highest contamination of Clarias Lazera with Lead and Zinc in all of samples, which indicates the high contamination of river’s water with heavy metals, thus consumption of these types of fishes poses significant health risks to consumers. It recommended investigating the sources and causes of heavy metals pollution through conducting further studies to detect other metals and studied other fish species.