Bj. Howard et al., THE USE OF DIETARY CALCIUM INTAKE OF DAIRY RUMINANTS TO PREDICT THE TRANSFER-COEFFICIENT OF RADIOSTRONTIUM TO MILK, Radiation and environmental biophysics, 36(1), 1997, pp. 39-43
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Biophysics,"Radiology,Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging","Environmental Sciences
Transfer coefficients (the equilibrium ratio between radionuclide acti
vity concentration in milk or meat and the daily intake of radionuclid
e) are widely used to predict the contamination of animal products fol
lowing the release of radionuclides into the environment. For a transf
er coefficient to be generally applicable, its value must be constant
for a range of circumstances. However, this is not the case for radios
trontium, the behaviour of which is strongly influenced by that of the
homeostatically controlled nutrient, calcium. In this study, a relati
onship is derived between radiostrontium transfer coefficients and die
tary calcium intake which takes into account the observed ratio for st
rontium:calcium transfer to milk. This relationship is tested against
a range of observed data collated from the literature (n = 30) and fou
nd to account for 93% of the variability in transfer coefficient value
s. Model calculations show that a reduction in F-m of at least 40%-60%
would be expected if dairy cattle, fed rations typical for well-manag
ed herds, were supplemented with 100-200 g per day. Larger reductions
would be predicted when dietary calcium intake is low.