The levels of selected pesticides in some rivers in Benue State-Nigeria and the cat fishes in them, were assessed. QuEChERS method was used for sample clean-up and GC-MS was used for the actual quantitation of the analytes. Whereas in the water samples collected from the rivers, pesticides levels ranged between Not detected to 0.005 ppm, in the cat fish samples, pesticides residues ranged between Not detected to 0.024 ppm. The results obtained show that, where pesticides were present, they were present only in trace amounts, that were below their respective guideline values in drinking water or their maximum pesticide residue limit in food. Hence, there are no immediate risks of the toxicities associated with these pesticides if water or cat fish from rivers in the study area were consumed. However, fishes from River Otobi are more likely to be associated with a wider spectrum of pesticides toxicity following a prolonged bioaccumulation than fishes from River Royongo, seeing as the former contains the highest number of pesticides residue types (7) while the latter have the least (4).
Keywords: cat-fishes, pesticide residues, pesticides, rivers, water
