Vanadium Toxicity and Distribution in Chicks and Rats

Abstract

Studies of the effect of dietary vanadium revealed that 25 ppm vanadium added to a dry skim milk-glucose monohydrate diet was toxic to chicks as indicated by both depression of growth and mortality. Ammonium metavanadate and vanadyl sulfate were equally toxic. The addition of the essential trace elements, iron, copper, molybdenum, cobalt, zinc, and manganese to the basal diet did not affect the toxicity of vanadium. Scandium, titanium, and niobium, elements which resemble vanadium in many of their chemical and physical parameters, were not toxic when fed at 200 ppm nor did they influence the toxicity of vanadium. Radioisotope studies revealed that scandium and niobium were poorly absorbed or poorly retained compared to vanadium. EDTA completely prevented the toxicity of vanadium apparently by preventing its absorption from the intestinal tract. Ingested V⁴⁸ was found to be mainly concentrated in the bone and kidney of young chicks and in the kidney of adult rats.