Impact of Some Heavy Metals Toxicity on Behaviour, Biochemical and Histopathological Alterations in Adult Rats

Animal welfare is a matter of societal concern and debate, its improvement should consider those aspects actually affecting animal’s health, through determining their impact on some welfare indicators, so, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of heavy metals toxicity on behavioural, biochemical and histopathological changes in adult rats. Twenty-five Sprague-Dawley adult rats were allotted into five groups, each of 5, two groups (GA & GB) treated with lead acetate (low 1g/l & high 2g/l) and another two (GC & GD) treated with anhydrous aluminium chloride (low 2 g/l & high 3.5 g/l) in drinking water daily for 5 weeks, while, GE (control) received drinking water without any treatment. The findings obtained indicated that feeding time, drinking, cage and total exploration frequencies increased in GB than other groups, although, lying time decreased. However, the movement activities increased in GA than others. On the other hand, glucose level decreased significantly in GB than GD and control. Furthermore, triglycerides and total lipid levels were significantly decreased in all treated groups than control. It was also revealed that the serum ALT increased significantly in GB than other groups while creatinine decreased significantly in both groups (GA & GB) treated with lead acetate than other groups with most decrement in high dose group of lead acetate. However, the urea level decreased and uric acid increased significantly in all treated groups than control. Microscopically, degenerated and necrotic hepatocytes, tubular and glomerulus’s necrosis were observed in all toxicated rats beside eosinophilic intranuclear inclusions in lining epithelium of some renal tubules of lead toxicated rats. Therefore, it can be concluded that different toxic levels of lead acetate and aluminum chloride can affect animal’s welfare by behavioural, biochemical and histopathological alterations in a dose dependent manner.