Differential prevalence of PFAS, PCBs and pesticides in liver of hunted game.

Free foraging game animals are constantly exposed to environmental pollutants and can therefore serve as bioindicators for these substances. However, they can also pose a health risk to humans if polluted meat of wild game animals enters the food chain. We analysed 219 potentially critical pollutants in 164 liver samples of hunted wild boar (Sus scrofa) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) from north-eastern Germany. Overall, 24 pollutants were detected and 16 of them were detected quantitatively. PCBs, PFAS and rodenticides were more frequent and present in far higher concentrations in wild boar than in roe deer. Only for rodenticides can it be assumed that there is no health risk for the game animals; otherwise, no statement can be made due to a lack of reference data. Risks for human consumers of liver arise from concentrations in wild boar liver exceeding the tolerable weekly intake for PFAS by up to 17 times and in individual cases the acute reference dose for brodifacoum by up to 485%. In contrast, the health risk of eating game meat is usually negligible, as chemical residues generally accumulate in the liver and less in muscle tissue. The significance of up to 12 co-occurring residues for animal and human health is still an open research issue.