Plutonium incorporation through ingestion by young animals

Studies to determine whether animals nursed by dams with a 239Pu burden would themselves acquire plutonium showed that rats incorporated about 0.019 percent of the amount injected into the dam, mice incorporated about 0.11 percent, and cats about 0.28 percent. Plutonium obtained in this fashion was avidly retained by bone and resulted in the appearance of two osteogenic sarcomas in a seven and one-half-year-old cat with an estimated terminal body burden of 0.23 to 0.27 μCi. In comparing the incorporation of ingested Pu-milk and Pu-citrate by rats of different ages, it was found that nurslings incorporated more than weanlings and weanlings more than adults. Also, 1.6 to 3 times as much plutonium was incorporated from ingested Pu-milk as from ingested Pu-citrate