Ja. Stricker et al., NATURALLY-OCCURRING RADIONUCLIDES IN TISSUE FROM BEEF FED PHOSPHATIC CLAY-GROWN FORAGES, Journal of environmental quality, 23(4), 1994, pp. 667-670
This study was designed to determine if beef animals (Bos taurus) fed
forages grown on reclaimed phosphate land accumulated selected radionu
clides in muscle, kidney, or bone tissues. Sixty (60) beef steers (ave
rage weight 194.5 kg) were randomly assigned to one of four treatment
groups: unmined pasture (control), reclaimed pasture, full feed of alf
alfa (Medicago sativa L.) hay, or full feed of corn (Zea mays L.) sila
ge both grown on reclaimed phosphatic clay. Animals remained on the st
udy for approximately 14 mo and were then slaughtered. Radium-226 in m
uscle tissue from the reclaimed pasture treatment was 0.081 Bq kg-1 an
d higher (P < 0.05) than in muscle tissue from the other three treatme
nts. Radium-226 levels in kidney tissue from the unmined and reclaimed
pasture treatments were higher (P < 0.05) than from both corn silage
and alfalfa hay treatments. Bone Ra-226 levels were higher than both m
uscle and kidney tissue (P < 0.05), but no statistically significant d
ifferences were observed in bone samples among the four treatment grou
ps. Results of this study indicate no food safety problems from consum
ing products from beef animals fed forages grown on reclaimed phosphat
e land.