Genotoxic effect of tannery pollution in crossbred cattle*

Abstract

Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) analysis is one of the practical applications of cytogenetics used to monitor the extent of genetic damage. This technique was used to assess the effect of tannery pollution on chromosomes of crossbred cattle. Blood samples collected from Friesian crossbred females inhabiting the leather industrial area (exposed group, n=15) and those maintained outside a radial distance of 20 krn (control group, n=15) were utilised for the study. Leucocyte cultures with incorporation of BrdU (10 µg/ml) revealed sister chromatid differentiation in metaphase spreads. The frequency distribution of SCEs did not follow either normal or Poisson distribution in control and exposed animals. The mean (SE) SCE frequencies of control and exposed animals were 8.02±0.22 (range; 3-13) and 9.68±0.41 (range, 3- 15) respectively, and the latter showed highly significant increase suggesting genotoxic effect of tannery pollution in cattle.