Table 7.

Correlation between ingredient inclusion in dry matter basis and heavy metal concentration in diets for cats, for ingredients with one or more moderately or highly positive correlation (r² ≥ 0.5).

	Heavy metal
	Cobalt (Co)		Mercury (Hg)		Lead (Pb)		Uranium (U)		Vanadium (V)
	r2	p	r2	p	r2	p	r2	p	r2	p
Beef heart (n = 10)	0.06	0.870	0.56	0.093	−0.02	0.955	0.32	0.367	0.32	0.371
Beef liver (n = 7)	0.80	0.030	0.42	0.352	0.79	0.035	0.71	0.071	0.74	0.060
Beetroot (n = 3)	1.00	0.040	0.61	0.586	0.94	0.215	1.00	0.059	1.00	0.007
Bell pepper (n = 3)	1.00	0.057	0.89	0.302	1.00	0.043	1.00	0.005	1.00	0.020
Carrot (n = 8)	0.44	0.272	0.17	0.693	0.71	0.048	0.72	0.045	0.71	0.048
Celery (n = 3)	0.98	0.130	0.25	0.841	0.99	0.087	1.00	0.027	1.00	0.019
Chicken breast meat (n = 6)	0.81	0.050	0.41	0.417	0.86	0.030	0.84	0.037	0.76	0.080
Chicken gizzard (n = 3)	0.61	0.579	0.96	0.183	0.47	0.685	0.79	0.424	0.92	0.254
Collards (n = 4)	0.85	0.153	0.89	0.109	0.84	0.155	0.87	0.128	0.83	0.170
Eggshell meal (n = 5)	0.30	0.618	0.78	0.121	0.23	0.708	−0.23	0.708	−0.35	0.562
Squash (n = 7)	0.55	0.199	−0.24	0.605	0.48	0.276	0.61	0.143	0.55	0.204
Yam (n = 3)	0.95	0.204	0.86	0.344	0.99	0.103	0.92	0.260	0.96	0.185
Yogurt (n = 4)	0.44	0.558	−0.07	0.926	0.53	0.469	0.52	0.476	0.42	0.581

n. the number of diets with this ingredient. Pearson correlation was used to determine coefficients.