Absorption, excretion, and tissue deposition of titanium in sheep

Titanium metabolism was measured in three 18 kg lambs each fed 450 g chopped hay daily. Two of the lambs were dosed orally and one intravenously with 3 muCi titanium-44 each. Clearance of the intravenous dose was extremely slow; after oral administration, however, no titanium-44 was detected in blood plasma for 48 h. Over 96% of the oral dose was recovered in feces and digestive tract contents. Titanium-44 absorption, estimated from total carcass recovery and by comparison of concentrations in internal organs of orally and intravenously dosed lambs, was less than .5%. Fecal titanium could be a satisfactory index of soil ingestion by grazing ruminants.