A study published this Wednesday (11) in the journal Nature identified microplastics in the blood of wild animals in the Pantanal. Researchers evaluate the health effects.
Residues were found in 43 of 47 animals evaluated in the Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal. The exposure even affected animals far from urban areas.
Blood samples were collected between 2021 and 2022. The results indicate that the advancement of human presence increases the concentration of microplastics in fauna.
Researchers have identified yet another impact of human presence on the fauna of the largest floodplain on the planet, the Pantanal. Microplastics were found in the blood of tapirs, giant anteaters and giant armadillos, including in animals that live in regions considered to be well preserved and far from cities.
The discovery was published this Wednesday (11) in the journal Nature, one of the most important scientific publications in the world. Now, the challenge for researchers is to discover the possible effects of these residues on animal health.
Microplastics are particles of synthetic materials measuring less than five millimeters that can be dispersed throughout the environment through different routes, including air, rain and waterways.
Among the next challenges facing science is understanding whether these residues can accumulate in animal organs and tissues and cause consequences over time. To achieve this, it will be necessary to expand research, combining blood and environmental sample analyzes with health and fertility assessments in different species.
For now, there is still no prediction of when these investigations will begin, according to one of the study's authors, the researcher and president of the Institute for the Conservation of Wild Animals (ICAS), Arnaud Desbiez.
Arnaud draws attention to the difficulty of identifying the effects of microplastics on animal bodies.
“This is not something that is very easy to do, it is very difficult to understand what impacts this will have directly on health.”, he comments.
In addition to investigating the possible damage to health, scientists still need to confirm the path of this contamination.
"We suspect that this contamination occurs through the air, through water. In the case of the anteater, it must certainly occur, in part, through the ingestion of termites, ants and pieces of soil. The work does not assess the impact on health nor can it show us where this contamination occurs", he adds.
The researchers found microplastic particles in 43 of the 47 animals evaluated in the Pantanal, the Cerrado of Mato Grosso do Sul and the Amazon. The study identified a relationship between the proximity of urbanized areas and waste management facilities and the concentration of these particles in animals. The exposure, however, is not restricted to fauna that lives close to urban centers.
Among the species analyzed, tapirs presented the most worrying results. Of the 26 individuals evaluated in the three biomes, 25 had microplastics in their blood, including those who lived in relatively well-preserved regions.
In the Pantanal, all animals sampled, including giant armadillos, had microplastic particles in their blood. Some lived more than 40 miles from developed areas and more than 70 miles from waste management facilities.
Entitled Human land use drives microplastic abundance in terrestrial wildlife, the study included the participation of ICAS, the National Initiative for the Conservation of the Brazilian Tapir (INCAB) and the Institute for Ecological Research (IPÊ), in addition to an international team of scientists.
The researchers analyzed blood samples from 26 tapirs and 21 giant anteaters, collected in the Amazon, the Cerrado and on a relatively preserved cattle farm in the Pantanal, between 2021 and 2022. The research also incorporated complementary data from three giant armadillos monitored in the Pantanal.
The study combined blood analyzes with GPS data, which made it possible to identify the locations where each animal roamed. The average identified was 73.8 particles per milliliter of blood, an amount within the range already recorded in human blood samples.
The conclusion of the study is that the advance of human presence in natural areas, associated with the expansion of activities and occupations in the territory, tends to increase the concentration of microplastics in wild fauna.
In Brazil, human occupation of these areas grew 42% between 2001 and 2020. According to researchers, reducing animal exposure to modified areas and improving waste management are fundamental measures to reduce this type of contamination.
