Multigeneration Studies on the Effect of Dietary DDT on the Vitamin A Status of the Weanling Rat

Abstract

The feeding of a nutritionally adequate stock diet containing 20 p.p.m. p,p′-DDT to rats for three generations demonstrated that this pesticide decreased liver stores of vitamin A in weanling rats. The lower vitamin A levels were not modified in successive generations of weanlings. The DDT effect was not apparent in the dams at maturity. Possible public health implications are discussed.