Pesticide Residues in Bovine Milk from a Predominantly Agricultural State of Haryana, India H. R. Sharma & A. Kaushik & C. P. Kaushik Received: 4 December 2005 / Accepted: 28 June 2006 / Published online: 16 December 2006 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2006 Abstract One hundred forty seven samples of bovine milk were collected from 14 districts of Haryana, India during December 1998–February 1999 and analysed for the presence of organochlorine pesticide (OCPs) residues. ∑HCH, ∑DDT, ∑endosulfan and aldrin were detected in 100%, 97%, 43% and 12% samples and with mean values of 0.0292, 0.0367, 0.0022 and 0.0036 μg/ml, respectively. Eight percent samples exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) of 0.10 mg/kg as recommended by WHO for ∑HCH, 4% samples of 0.05 mg/kg for α-HCH, 5% samples of 0.01 mg/kg for γ-HCH, 26% samples of 0.02 mg/ kg for β-HCH as recommended by PFAA and 24% samples of 0.05 mg/kg as recommended by FAO for ∑DDT. Concentrations of β-HCH and p,p′-DDE were more as compared to other isomers and metabolites of HCH and DDT. Keywords pesticides . residues . milk . persistent 1 Introduction India with about 4% of the world’ s cropped area shares around 1.7% of global pesticide consumption. Of the total 54,135 MT technical grade pesticide consumption in India in agriculture during 1999– 2000, 60% were insecticides, 21% fungicides, 14% herbicides and 5% others. The percentage of organo- chlorines during this period has decreased from 40 to 14.5% accompanied by a sharp increase in consump- tion of organophosphates from 30 to 74% (Agnihotri, 2000). Consumption of pesticides in Haryana in agriculture during 1999–2000 was 5,030 MT. This followed Uttar Pradesh (7,400 MT), Punjab (7,100 MT) and Andhra Pradesh (7,000 MT). However, the g/ha consumption in Haryana was 8,481 as compared to the average consumption of 288 g/ha in the country (Agnihotri, 2000). The work reported from various parts of country has shown the presence of persistent and fat soluble organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) such as DDT and HCH isomers in dairy milk (John, Bakore, & Bhatnagar, 2001; Mukherjee & Gopal, 1993). The animals excrete the ingested chlorinated pesticides through their milk fat (Roos & Tuinstra, 1991) which depends on several factors such as the species, the quantity of milk produced daily, the amount of pesticides consumed, duration of previous exposure and the nature of pesticides (Vreman et al., 1977). A little work was carried out in Haryana on OCPs residues in milk (Chauhan, Singh, & Dahiya, 1982; Environ Monit Assess (2007) 129:349–357 DOI 10.1007/s10661-006-9368-5 H. R. Sharma : A. Kaushik : C. P. Kaushik (*) Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar-125001, Haryana, India e-mail: cpkaushik@rediffmail.com H. R. Sharma e-mail: kalindi99@yahoo.com H. R. Sharma Department of Environmental Health, University of Gondar, P.B. No. 196, Gondar, Ethiopia