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Transfer of Radiostrontium from Cows' Feed to Milk¹

Radiological Health Research Activities,² Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center Cincinnati, Ohio

I. R. Jones

Department of Animal Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis

C. R. Porter

Southeastern Radiological Health Laboratory,² Montgomery, Alabama

C. P. Straub

Radiological Health Research Activities,² Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center Cincinnati, Ohio

ABSTRACT

Stable strontium, strontium⁸⁹, strontium⁹⁰, and calcium intake and excretion into cows' milk were measured in three herds. The transfer of radiostrontium from feed to milk was observed in strontium⁸⁹ and strontium⁹⁰ originating in fallout from nuclear tests and deposited naturally in the grasses and grains of the cows' feed. One of the herds was continuously on pasture, one was in dry lot and fed stored feed, and one was transferred from dry lot to pasture, maintained on pasture for 19 days, then returned to dry lot. The stored feed was low and the pasture grass high in radiostrontium content. Change from the high- to the low-radiostrontium diet decreased radiostrontium concentration in milk with combined half-times of 0.77 and 4.6 days. The observed ratio from feed to milk for stable strontium to calcium was 0.12. For radiostrontium, a higher observed ratio occurred with a low-radiostrontium diet and a lower one with a high-radiostrontium diet. This was due to a change in specific activity between feed and milk and was attributed to the appearance in milk of strontium from the cow's body pool. Of the stable strontium in milk, approximately 40% was estimated to derive from the skeleton.

¹ Technical Paper no. 1962, Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, Corvallis.

² Division of Radiological Health, U. S. Public Health Service.