The effect of dietary mercury on vanadate toxicity in the chick

Three experiments were conducted investigating the interaction of dietary vanadate and mercury on the growth of chicks. The growth-retarding effect of 30 mg vanadium/kg diet was completely overcome by the inclusion of 500 mg mercury/kg diet. Restricting the feed intake of the mercury-supplemented animals to approximately those receiving vanadate alone still resulted in an amelioration of the growth retarding effect of vanadate. Analyses of femurs and kidneys revealed that mercury added to a vanadium-containing diet increased the vanadate concentration of the femur and had no effect on the vanadium concentration in the kidney. As little as 25 mg mercury/kg diet significantly reduced the growth retarding effect of vanadium. The inclusion of 100 mg mercury/kg in the diet resulted in a significant increase in renal glutathione concentration.