Determination of 40K radionuclide concentration and elements content in some animal feeds

Abstract

The study of radionuclide concentrations is significant for the exposure of the radiation on the livings from these radionuclides and they are transferred from plants, animals to livings, and this is important for the health of livings. In this paper, ⁴⁰K concentration and elements content of wheat, barley, corn, and chick feeds, which are used as animal feed using gamma-ray spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) were examined. The animal feeds were obtained from two different sellers for representative and to be able to compare the obtained results from studied animal feeds. The mean value of ⁴⁰K radionuclide concentration for wheat, barley, and corn is smaller than the world mean value whereas it is higher for chick feeds than the world mean value. The H_in, H_ex, and I_γ of studied animal feeds are lower than limit value reported in the scientific report. There are positive and significant correlations between K, Ca, Fe, Mg, Na, P, and ⁴⁰K at the 0.01 level and between Cu, Mn, Ni, Zn, and ⁴⁰K at 0.05 level.