92% of sheep found microplastics in their bodies

In the region of Murcia in southeastern Spain, large amounts of microplastics have been spotted in the fields where they grow

Low-density material is difficult to remove completely, and over time it decomposes into smaller particles that are absorbed by the soil, carried by water or wind, and trappedinto animal organisms.

To know the state of pollutionmicroplastics in this area, researchers from the University of Cartagena analyzed the presence of plastics in agricultural soil as well as in sheep feces. So they wanted to determine the level of harmful material in the body of livestock. They also wanted to identify possible ingestion of plastic in livestock that feed on farmland.

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They found that 100% of the analyzedthe soil samples contained microplastics, as did 92% of the tested sheep feces samples. The researchers note that they recorded 2,000 microplastic particles per kilogram of soil and 1,000 particles per kilogram of dry feces.

Scientists have established a high concentration for the first timeplastics and warned about the ingress of this material into the organisms of farm animals and, accordingly, into food. In future research, they want to analyze how plastic ingestion of these animals affects them.

Earlier it turned out that the United States produced moreplastic waste than any other country in the world. The results of the study, published in the journal Science, also show that, despite a "reliable and affordable waste management system," between 309 and 904 million kilograms of plastic waste were illegally dumped in the United States.

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