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U.S. Department of Energy
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I$sup 131$ CONCENTRATIONS IN BLOOD, MILK, URINE AND FECES OF DAIRY COWS FOLLOWING A SINGLE DOSE OF RADIO-IODINE

Journal Article · · J. Agr. Sci.

As part of a program to investigate ways of reducing /sup 131/I levels in cows' milk, to reduce the human consumption of radioiodine resulting from fallout, the effect of the level of stable I in the diet upon the concentration of radioiodine in the blood, urine, feces, and milk was determined in dairy cows given a single oral dose of /sup 131/KI. Data are also presented on the fractionation of blood and milk radioiodine to provide insight into blood precursors of milk radioiodine. The cows were maintained on diets providing about 3 to 5 or 12to 16 mg of stable iodine per day. In general, the /sup 131/I concentrations in milk and urine tended to parallel the nonprotein-bound /sup 131/ I of blood. Fecal /sup 131/I levels of the lowiodine cows tended to parallel that of the whole blood, whereas it followed the nonbound radioiodine of blood for cows in the higher stable I diet. Compartmertal analysis of the concentration curves showed a component with a T/sub 1/2/ of 10 to 22 hr common to both groups of cows. The second componert of the curves constructed for the cows on the higher iodine irtake had a T/sub 1/2/ of 41 to 58 hr. The second componert for the low-iodine cows had a T/sub 1/2/ of 83 to 169 hr for urine, feces, and nonbound radioiodine of blood, and 1200 and 1580 hr, respectively, for the fecal and wholeblocd curves. A greater proportion of bound radioiodine was observed in the milk and blood of cows on the lowiodine diet than for the cows on the higher iodine irtake. The proportion of bound /sup 131/I in blood increased with time, but the bound /sup 131/I of milk was relatively constant. It is concluded that there is no advantage in purposely maintainlng dairy cows on a low- iodine diet in hopes that their thyroids would trap /sup 131/I and in that way significartly reduce the radioiodine secreted into milk. (BBB)

Research Organization:
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
NSA Number:
NSA-18-017437
OSTI ID:
4058422
Journal Information:
J. Agr. Sci., Journal Name: J. Agr. Sci. Vol. Vol: 61
Country of Publication:
Country unknown/Code not available
Language:
English