Abstract

The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, which is a native of southern United States, was introduced to Portugal in 1979. Presently it is distributed widely in the country, being trapped for human consumption without sanitary control. Nevertheless, in most of the areas of crayfish distribution in Portugal contamination caused by human activities constitutes a problem. Actually, chemical pollution from industries and agriculture. forestry and mining, is considered to be significant in most of these areas. Copper, which is often identified in the water in places where crayfish is caught, constitutes an essential trace metal for all living organisms, having many biological effects, not only as an essential element but also as toxicant. The aim of the present work was to investigate copper concentrations in crayfish, P. clarkii, soft tissues (as edible portion) after exposure to a range of dissolved copper conditions. Crayfish were exposed to three concentrations of copper: 125 µg L^-1, 250 µg L^-1 and 500 µg L^-1, at 10°C and 20°C, during 96 hours. Determination of trace metal was made by reference to aqueous standards of Cu, and was performed using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results showed that there was no significant change in the levels of copper in soft tissues of crayfish under the given conditions.

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