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Mineral Deficiencies of Milk and Congenital Malformations in the Rat¹

Department of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

Female rats were maintained from weaning through the reproductive period using 4 different dried-whole-milk diets. The control diet was supplemented with vitamins and the known deficient minerals, iron, manganese, copper and iodine. Diets low in iron, manganese or copper were prepared by omission of the respective supplement.

Iron deficiency caused a mild anemia in the adult rats. Their offspring were severely anemic, weak and almost entirely nonviable, but otherwise not grossly malformed.

The mild manganese deficiency induced by the whole-milk diet did not seriously impair reproduction but it did produce skeletal anomalies. The long bones were shorter than normal, there were extra sternebrae in the sternum and fusion of the sternal and vertebral segments was common.

The copper-deficient diet did not cause anemia in the adult animals but the offspring were severely anemic and almost entirely nonviable. The deficient newborn was characterized by severe edema, widespread subcutaneous hemorrhage and abdominal hernias.

Manuscript received 18 October 1960.