Abstract
The presented work deals with levels and distribution of bisphenol A (BPA) in the edible tissues of a large food-producing animal species. An experimental animal study included 14 young Istrian pramenka rams (Ovis aries), of which seven were exposed for 64 days to a low dietary dose of BPA at 25 µg/kg b.w./day, and seven served as a control group. Residue analysis of both aglycone and total BPA was performed in the muscle tissue, liver, kidney and fat tissue of the individual animals by means of enzymatic deconjugation (for total BPA), organic solvent extraction, molecularly imprinted polymer solid-phase extraction (MISPE) clean-up and high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLU). The analysis was optimized and validated for aglycone BPA in the fat tissue and for the total BPA in all tissues investigated. Edible tissues of the control group of rams generally remained BPA-free, while there were concentration differences between the control and treated groups for liver and kidney post last administration. The human health risk resulting from this study was assessed by the estimated dietary exposure in adults, which was < 0.1% related to the valid European Union Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) value of 4 µg/kg b.w./day. However, it would be 58-fold higher than the newly proposed TDI value of 0.04 ng/kg b.w./day.