Analysis of laboratory animal feed for toxic and essential elements by atomic absorption and inductively coupled argon plasma emission spectrometry.

Analytical procedures are described for the determination of arsenic, cadmium, calcium, copper, lead, mercury, selenium, and zinc in animal feed. Mercury is determined by digesting the feed sample in a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids with vanadium pentoxide added as an oxidation catalyst, reducing with stannous chloride, and sweeping the elemental mercury into an absorption tube for measurement by atomic absorption (AA) spectrophotometry. Arsenic and selenium are determined simultaneously by digesting the sample with a mixture of concentrated nitric, sulfuric, and perchloric acids; the hydrides of arsenic and selenium, which are formed with the addition of sodium borohydride, are swept into an argon-hydrogen flame for analysis by AA. A low temperature ash is prepared and dissolved in IN HNO3 for the analysis of calcium, copper, and zinc by emission spectroscopy using the inductively coupled argon plasma source; the same solution is used for the determination of cadmium and lead by flameless AA. Animal feed spiked with 3 levels of each of the 8 elements gave recoveries that ranged from 80 to 107%.