104
Fluorine intoxication of Cattle in India
The feeding of calcium compounds definitely
lowers the fluorine contents of the bones and teeth.
The fluorine content of the bones is, however,
quite high and approaches that of the high fluorine
group. This is to be expected, as we can presume
that signs of fluorine intoxication, i.e. develop-
ment of exostoses on the bones, etc. will only
appear when the bones become more or less satur¬
rated with fluorine. On the other hand, the
fluorine contents in the molars and incisors in
one of the animals are of the same magnitude as
seen in normal animals of the same group. It
is probable, therefore, that the concentration of
fluorine in developed teeth can only be increased
with great difficulty as a result of the ingestion of
large quantities of fluorine. In the case of the
particular animal of the calcium group, the ad-
ministration of calcium may have removed a
sufficient amount of the ingested fluorine to pre-
vent the teeth being affected, even though mild
symptoms of fluorosis appeared. It may be stated
here that no mottling of teeth was noticeable
in any of the high fluorine group of animals. In
one of the animals of the calcium group (No. 148)
which was discontinued after an experimental
period of 10 months and was given green feed,
a few white spots were found on the incisors three
months after the fluorine feeding was stopped.
This animal is still under observation.
Fluorine contents of the teeth and bones of animals
suffering from rheumatic arthritis and osteomalacia
As mentioned above, we received from the
Veterinary Investigation Officer, Madras, three
samples of molars and incisors from cases of rheu-
matic arthritis. The fluorine concentrations in
those samples are given in Table VI.
TABLE VI
Concentration of fluorine in the teeth of animals
suffering from rheumatic arthritis
No.
of
Sample
1
2
3
Material
Molar . .
Incisor . .
Molar . .
Incisor . .
Molar . .
Incisor . .
Ash
per
cent.
75.3
73.6
70.0
75.6
79.5
73.3
Mg.
fluorine
per 100 gm.
fat-free
material
172.8
163.5
202.6
134.8
122.3
107.4
It will, be seen that the fluorine concentrations
in the teeth are fairly high, being much the same
as or greater than those found in the high fluorine
group of our animals (Table V).
Samples of bones and teeth from a country
bullock suffering from osteomalacia in the Yadred
dipally village of the Hyderabad State were re¬
ceived through the courtesy of Mr B. K. Badami.
Director of Veterinary Services. The animal was
reported ill for the last five years and was showing
acute lameness.
The analytical data of the
different bones and teeth are given in Table VII.
TABLE VII
Analysis of bones and teeth of an animal suffer-
ing from osteomalacia
Material
Femur . .
Pelvis . .
Vertebra . .
Molar . .
Incisor . .
Ash
percent
63.4
64.8
61.5
77.3
77.6
Calcium
gm./100
gm. ash.
41.0
41.3
41.1
39.3
...
Phos-
phorus
gm./100
gm. ash
17.7
17.7
18 .2
18.2
...
Magne-
sium
gnv./100
gm. ash
2.03
1.97
2.08
1.97
...
Fluorine
mg./100
gm. fat.
free
material
527.0
459.6
570.2
195.8
98.2
It will be noted that the fluorine concentration
in all the bones was very high. The calcium and
phosphorus contents were normal, thus showing
that this case was definitely not one of osteomala-
cia. A peculiar feature of this case was that no
exostoses were found in any part of the bony
structure on post-mortem examination and no
thickening of the shaft could be observed.
Although a simple 'post-moriem examination
did not reveal the nature of the disease in such a
case, the chemical examination of the bones and
teeth provided a better picture and the high
fluorine content of the tissues pointed unmistak-
ably to the etiology of the trouble. A special
feature of these rheumatic arthritis and osteo-
malacia cases may be pointed out here namely
that the molars of these field samples showed much
more fluorine content than those observed in
our high fluorine group of animals. The diff¬
erence may be due to the fact that the
field cases
were chronic and a slow intoxi-
cation with lower doses of fluorine must
have occurred. The animals were also probably
much younger when the intoxication first started
and, as such, with growing tissues, a comparative-
ly much larger deposition of fluorine might have
taken place in the molars. This explanation
appears to receive support from the fact that in
the experiment on calves at Coimbatore a similar
high value of fluorine content in the molar was
observed (private communication). Our experi-
mental animals, on the other hand, were all adults,