Appraisal and Validation of a Method (MVU-AAS) Used for the Detection of a Toxic Metal Mercury (Hg) in Poultry Feed Available in Bangladesh

Toxic metal mercury (Hg) in poultry feed might affect seriously on the environment and human being. So continual or gradual analyses of toxic metal contents in poultry feedstuff are of prime significance for assessing the feed quality and consumer safety. In this study, a method named Mercury Vapor Unit Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (MVU-AAS) was used to analyze the content of Hg in poultry feed in compliance with the Council Directive 333/2007/EC, Commission Decision 657/2002/EC. The metal Hg was analyzed from the feed sample inthe laboratory by MVU-AAS (Model: AA-7000 Shimadzu, Japan) and the absorbance was read at 253.65 nm wavelength, The method was confirmed and validated by complying with the international guidelines and assessing a number of criteria say system suitability, precision studies, linearity check, uncertainty measurement and recovery % etc.. The results revealed that the coefficient of variation (CV%) for system suitability and precision was <10% for the metal (Hg) detected in this study. The linearity of the calibration curves was excellent (r2>0.998) at various concentrated levels. The limits of detection (LoD) value in feed was 0.007 mg/Kg and the limit of quantification (LoQ) value in feed sample was found 0.023 mg/Kg. The values of instrumental detection limit (IDL) and instrument quantification limit (IQL) were 0.045(μg/l), and 0.15(μg/l), respectively. The recovery (%) found for the metal was 92.29 %. The overall CV% of repeatability and reproducibility ranged from 3.27 % to 5.92 %. The value ranges from 12 to 16 was observed for the measurement uncertainty (%) of Hg in this study. The proposed validation criteria indicate that it is a reliable method that can be used easily for the routine analysis of toxic metal (Hg) content in poultry feed sample.