Susanna Draghi ¹ Giulio Curone ¹ Roberta Risoluti ² Stefano Materazzi ² Giuseppina Gullifa ² Angela Amoresano ^3,4 Michele Spinelli ^3,4 Carolina Fontanarosa ^3,4 Radmila Pavlvovic ⁵ Alberto Pellegrini ⁶ Marco Fidani ⁶ Petra Cagnardi ¹ Federica Di Cesare ^1* Francesco Arioli ¹

• ¹ University of Milan, Milan, Italy
• ² Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Lazio, Italy
• ³ University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Campania, Italy
• ⁴ Istituto Nazionale Biostrutture e Biosistemi, Rome, Lazio, Italy
• ⁵ San Raffaele Scientific Institute (IRCCS), Milan, Lombardy, Italy
• ⁶ UnireLab, Settimo Milanese, Italy

Recently, environmental pollution has become a significant concern for human, animal, and environmental health, fitting within the "One Health" framework. Among the various environmental contaminants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have gathered substantial attention due to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and adverse health effects. This study aims to compare the amount of 12 PFASs in the fur, liver, and muscle of wild roe deer to evaluate the feasibility of using fur as a non-invasive biomonitoring matrix. Twenty male and 20 female roe deer aged between 12 and 24 months were randomly sampled from a hunting area in Northern Italy. Samples of fur, muscle, and liver were collected post-mortem, and PFASs concentrations were measured using a validated UHPLC-HRMS method. Results indicated significant differences in PFAS concentrations among the three matrices. Fur, although easier to sample and store, showed highly variable PFASs levels so as different detection frequencies than in muscle and liver. PFASs like PFHxA had higher detection frequencies in fur compared to liver and muscle, while compounds such as PFBA, PFPeA, PFHpA, PFDA, PFHxS, 6-2 FTS, and 8-2 FTS were less frequently detected in fur. In conclusion, while fur presents many practical advantages for biomonitoring, such as non-invasive sampling and stability, its use is complicated by variable detection frequencies and concentration levels. These aspects, together with the use of a single sampling technique, can be considered a limitation of the study. Notably, compounds like PFOA, PFNA, and PFOS showed partially similar detection frequencies across the matrices, suggesting potential interest for further research. This study opens new perspectives on the use of fur for environmental monitoring, highlighting the need for more extensive research to understand the relationship between PFASs concentrations in fur and other biological matrices. Future studies should focus on methodological improvements in extraction and quantification techniques for PFASs in fur to enhance its reliability as a biomonitoring tool.