Abstract
Radiotracer experiments were performed (February–April, 1982) to study the assimilation and metabolism of the transuranium nuclide americium-241 in the marine teleosts Serranus scriba (Linnaeus, 1758) and Scorpaena notata Rafinesque, 1810, caught off the Monaco coast. Fish fed with 241Am-labelled food showed that assimilation of this radionuclide takes place through the gastrointestinal walls and that the small fraction accumulated is incorporated mainly in the skin, muscle and skeleton. Gut-transfer coefficients were similar in both species and averaged 0.7% (range 0.1 to 1.7%) of the ingested activity. The calculated biological half-lives for loss of the absorbed fraction ranged between 49 and 61 d for Serranus scriba and 12 and 117 d for Scorpaena notata. Results from an intramuscular injection experiment indicated that 241Am was retained mainly in the liver, skin and skeleton; the fraction accumulated by muscle was very low. Liver displayed a relatively short biological half-time for 241Am loss of roughly 24 d. Routes of 241Am excretion from the teleosts appear to be through the kidneys, gills and feces with bile serving as a possible excretion route from the liver. From the limited amount of published information available for comparison, experimental evidence is presented which suggests that 241Am taken up via the food chain is more biologically available to marine fish than is plutonium.
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Communicated by J. M. Pérès, Marseille
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Carvalho, F.P., Fowler, S.W. & La Rosa, J. Assimilation, inter-organ transfer and excretion of americium in two teleost fish. Mar. Biol. 77, 59–66 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393210
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00393210