Journal article
Skeletal Pathology of Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) Exposed to High Environmental Fluoride Levels in South-Eastern Australia
J Hufschmid, I Beveridge, G Coulson, G Walker, P Shen, E Reynolds, J Charles
Journal of Comparative Pathology | Published : 2015
Abstract
Significantly elevated bone fluoride concentrations have been reported in a population of eastern grey kangaroos (. Macropus giganteus) resident near a fluoride-emitting aluminum smelter in southeastern Australia. This paper describes the skeletal and synovial joint lesions observed post mortem in the same sample of kangaroos (. n=76). The prevalence and severity of skeletal lesions, specifically the formation of multiple, large, smooth exostoses over the diaphysis of long bones (especially, but not exclusively, on the tibia, fibula and metatarsi), were positively associated with bone fluoride concentration. So too were lesions of degenerative joint disease, including periarticular osteophyt..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the help of colleagues and collaborators who have been essential to the project and the completion of this report, in particular G. Anderson, statistician at the Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, for assistance with the statistics, J. Gould from Portland Aluminium for the bone fluoride analyses on a large number of samples and R. Jeffreys from Portland Aluminium for the collection of kangaroos, both at Portland and Cape Bridgewater. B. Augusteyn generously provided us age estimates based on lens protein density. Finally, we acknowledge the financial, operational and analytical (bone fluoride analysis) support from Portland Aluminium, Alcoa.