Dear Aneta Pacyna,

Please choose to consider procedures we'd done while working with bird feathers in Vietnam:

Processing and Analysis of Samples for PAHs

Tissues, namely, brain, liver, and muscle were separated and stored in deep freezer in clean polythene vials till the time of processing. Tissue samples (5–10 g) were digested in 6 N potassium hydroxide for 24 h at 35°C. Digestate was cooled and then neutralized with glacial acetic acid. The mixture was then extracted three times with methylene chloride, and the extracts were combined and concentrated to near dryness before reconstituting in petroleum ether for transfer to a 20 g 1% deactivated silica gel column topped with 5 g neutral alumina. PAHs were eluted using 100 mL 40% methylene chloride/60% petroleum ether followed by 50 mL methylene chloride. The eluants were concentrated using rotary flask evaporator to near dryness and redissolved in 2 mL acetonitrile. All the samples were transferred into HPLC autosampler vials for PAHs analysis as per the method followed by Hu et al. [24,25]. All the samples were quantified for 15 components of PAHs, namely, naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benz(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, dibenz(a,h)anthracene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene using Agilent 1100 HPLC system equipped with programmable fluorescence detection at excited and emission wavelength of 260 and 500 nm, respectively. About 10 μL of the sample was injected through an autosampler into C18 column (Zorbax 4.6 × 250 mm) of 5 μm particle size. The temperature of the column was maintained at 20°C. Water/acetonitrile (ACN) was used as a mobile phase with a flow of 1 mL/min. The initial content of ACN was 50% and then increased into 60% (0–3 min) and 95% (3–14 min). This level was held constant for 24 min until the end of the analysis. All the results were compared with external PAHs mixture standard (AccuStandard, USA). Minimum detection limits for PAHs ranged from 3 to 10 ng/g wet weight depending on the compound. The number of spikes, duplicates, and blanks was 9% of the total number of samples analyzed. The recovery of the compounds from fortified samples (100 ng/g) ranged between 78% and 103%. Concentrations were not adjusted for per cent recovery.

Processing and Analysis of Samples for PCBs

Tissues (5–10 g) were homogenized with anhydrous sodium sulphate and Soxhlet extracted with a mixture of 300 mL diethyl ether and 100 mL hexane for 7 h. After concentration through rotary evaporator, 1 mL of the aliquot was dried at 80°C to determine lipid content. The remaining extract was transferred to a 20 g Florisil-packed dry column (15 mm i.d. × 30 mm), and the solvents were dried by a gentle flow of nitrogen. Organochlorines absorbed on Florisil were eluted with a mixture of 120 mL acetonitrile and 30 mL water. The elute was transferred to a separatory funnel containing 600 mL of water and 100 mL of hexane. After partitioning, hexane layer was concentrated to 6 mL and then cleaned with equal volume of concentrated sulphuric acid. The cleaned extract was fractionated by passing through 12 g of wet Florisil column eluted with hexane (90 mL; first fraction) and then with 20% dichloromethane in hexane (150 mL; second fraction). Each faction was concentrated for analysis in gas chromatograph.

The final extracts were analyzed for 32 congeners of PCBs and the following organochlorine pesticides: isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) (α-, β-, δ-, and γ-HCH (lindane)); DDT metabolites, namely, p,p′-DDT, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene (p,p′-DDE), and p,p′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD); and the cyclodiene insecticides, namely, heptachlor epoxide, dieldrin, and endosulfan and its metabolites (α-, β-, and endosulfan sulfate). An aliquot (1 μL) from the final extract was injected into a Hewlett Packard 5890 series II Gas Chromatograph (GC) equipped with a 63Ni Electron Capture Detector and a splitless injection port. The GC column employed was a DB-608 fused silica capillary column (30 m × 0.32 mm × 0.5 μm thickness; J&W Scientific Inc., Folsom, CA, USA) coated with 35% phenyl methyl polysiloxane. The column oven temperature was programmed from 180°C, held for 3 min, then increased to 270°C at 10°C/min, and held for 20 min. Injector and detector temperatures were set at 250°C and 280°C, respectively. Nitrogen was used as a carrier gas with a column flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. A mixture of organochlorine pesticides (Dr. Ehrenstorfer, Germany) and a mixture of 32 PCB congeners (AccuStandard, USA) were used as standards. The concentrations of the individual compounds were quantified from the peak area of the sample to that of the corresponding external standard. Recoveries of the compounds from fortified samples (100 ng/mL) ranged from 94% to 103% and from 92% to 110% for OCPs and PCBs, respectively. Results are not corrected for per cent recovery. Analyses were run in batches of ten samples plus four quality controls (QCs) including one reagent blank, one matrix blank, one QC check sample, and one random sample in duplicate. The minimum detection limits for all the compounds analyzed were from 1 to 3 ng/g wet weight.

Best wishes,

Ilya

I don't think ASE is so essential, there are many papers where organic pollutants were determined in bird feathers like the two above, maybe you can try these

regards

stefania

Article Feathers as a nondestructive biomonitor for persistent organ...

Article Organochlorine pesticide and polychlorinated biphenyl residu...

You can see this paper maybe it will help you