BIOMONITORING OF FLUORIDE CONTAMINATION O F WILD RUMINANT HABITATS INNORTHERN BOHEMIA (CZECH-REPUBLIC)

Fluoride content and occurrence of dental fluorosis were studied in 39 mandibles of four ruminant species (red deer, roe deer, sika deer and mouflon) from five hunting districts situated in the fluoride contami nated ore mountains and its foreland in Northern Bohemia. Compared to controls from areas in Germany not exposed to increased fluoride depos ition, bone fluoride concentrations in the N-Bohemian red and roe deer samples were elevated by factors of 5.5 and 6.6, respectively. All sp ecimens from N-Bohemia exhibited characteristic dental lesions resulti ng from chronic fluoride intoxication during tooth development. In the three deer species, the degree of dental fluorosis of the permanent c heek teeth was assessed using a scoring scheme. On the basis of these individual tooth scores, dental lesion indices were calculated for the tooth rows. Increase of this index (DLI) was positively associated wi th an increase in bone fluoride concentration. Recording dental lesion indices thus offers the opportunity for a quick and economic large sc ale biomonitoring of the level of fluoride contamination of deer habit ats. The differences in the degree of fluorotic alteration of the M(1) and M(2) between fluorosed red and roe deer mandibles were related to variation in the timing of mineralization of these teeth in the two s pecies.