TOXICITY AND DEPOSITION OF THALLIUM IN CERTAIN GAME BIRDS

¹ From the California State Division of Fish and Game and Hooper Foundation for Medical Research, University of California, San Francisco

Studies on quail, geese and ducks indicate that these game birds may be fatally poisoned with 12, 15 and 30 mgm. per kilogram of thallium respectively. Analyses of various body tissues indicate a distribution of thallium throughout, the muscular tissues such as the gizzard, thigh and breast acquiring concentrations of thallium greater than the administered concentration; the vital organs and bone absorb a concentration approximately equal to that administered, while fat retains practically no thallium. Analysis of the tissues of a goose dying thirteen days after the administration of a dose of 20 mgm. per kilogram indicated that the various tissues still retained 33 to 71 per cent of the administered concentration.

Although the edible tissues retain a large percentage of the ingested thallium, there is little probability that secondary poisoning in man would result from eating thallium poisoned game birds, due to the quantity of such flesh that would be required to produce a toxic dose in man.

Studies on the elimination of thallium in the urine of a dog indicated that 61.6 per cent of the dosage was excreted in thirty-six days, the rate however had decreased so that a minimum of eighty days additional would be required for complete excretion even though no further decrease occurred.