Mercury Concentrations in Bullfrogs (Rana castebiena) Collected from a Southern Nevada Wetland

Authors

Shawn Gerstenberger, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
R. Pearson, University of Michigan

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2002

Publication Title

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology

Volume

69

Issue

2

First page number:

210

Last page number:

218

Abstract

A considerable amount of time and effort has been spent determining concentrations of environmental contaminants in edible tissue from fish and wildlife species in the United States. The majority of these investigations are concerned with sport fish and migratory waterfowl These species are known to accumulate both metals and organochlorine compounds which are transferred up the food chain and can result in exposure to the human population. However, one additional aquatic species that may be of concern is the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) because of its wide geographic distribution due to its human mediated introduction into many aquatic ecosystems, and because the consumption of frog legs is considered a delicacy by certain populations. Bullfrogs are harvested and consumed by sportsmen across the United States, and management agencies often have extremely liberal, or no, restrictions on their harvest. In southern Nevada, for example, bullfrogs can be harvested year-round with no daily bag limit (Nevada Division of Wildlife 2001). Thus, certain human populations which consume bullfrogs on a regular basis may be exposed to elevated levels of environmental contaminants. Additionally, recent investigations have demonstrated that mercury may also have effects on survival, growth, development of amphibian populations (Briston and Threlkeld 1998; McCrary and Heagler 1997; Punzo 1993a; Punzo 1993b; Kanamadi and Saidapur 1992)

Keywords

Bullfrog; Cooking (Frogs); Mercury – Bioaccumulation; Nevada; Organochlorine compounds – Bioaccumulation; Pollutants; Rana catesbeiana

Disciplines

Environmental Health and Protection | Environmental Sciences | Toxicology | Water Resource Management

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

Repository Citation

Gerstenberger, S., Pearson, R. (2002). Mercury Concentrations in Bullfrogs (Rana castebiena) Collected from a Southern Nevada Wetland. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 69(2), 210-218.