Porphyrins in excreta: a nondestructive biomarker for the hazard assessment of birds contaminated with PCBs

The main aims of this paper are: a) to propose the use of porphyrins in excreta (nondestructive biomarker) as an alternative to the traditional liver porphyrins (destructive biomarker) in the hazard assessment of birds contaminated with PCBs and; b) to propose the use of a fast and inexpensive fluorimetric assay, proposed by Grandchamp et al. [1], as an alternative to HPLC for rapid evaluation of porphyrins in biological samples. The proposals were tested in the laboratory using three groups of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica), with commercial bird food containing different concentrations of Arochlor 1260 for 25 days, and an untreated control group of the same birds.