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Effect of Zinc Nutrition upon Uptake and Retention of Zinc-65 in the Chick¹

Department of Poultry Husbandry and Graduate School of Nutrition, and U. S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and Department of Radiology and Surgery, School of Medicine and Dentistry, The University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

The metabolism of zinc has been investigated using zinc-65 retention in the tissues of 4-week-old cockerels fed either zinc-deficient or zinc-sufficient diets. All tissues from the deficient chicks retained radiozinc to a much greater degree than controls, with the activity increasing greatly during a 32-hour study period. Correlation coefficients derived by computer analysis showed that zinc-65 retention in red blood cells had a high positive correlation with all tissues examined, especially for the sufficient group. Plasma retention exhibited a low negative correlation for both dietary supplement groups. Stable zinc analyses demonstrated that most organs remain constant in zinc content in deficiency states; only bone, liver and duodenum showed a lower stable zinc content in deficiency than in sufficiency. A zinc deficiency syndrome occurring elsewhere in human males, characterized by dwarfism, rough skin, delayed epiphyseal closure, hypogonadism, and failure in the development of secondary sex characteristics, was compared with the deficiency observed in these cockerels. The observations that uptake and retention of radioactive zinc is markedly greater in zinc deficient animals, as compared with that which occurs in those receiving adequate dietary zinc, have important implications, not only in normal nutrition, but also in terms of radioactive zinc-65 from nuclear fission.

² Present address: Conewago Feeds, Gardners, Pennsylvania.

³ Cornell University.

⁴ University of Rochester.

Manuscript received 18 November 1963.