Chronic toxicity of methylmercury in the adult cat. Interim report.

Doses of 3, 8.4, 20, 46, 74 or 176 mug Hg/kg/day were fed to groups of 8--10 adult cats, either as methylmercuric chloride or as methylmercury-contaminated fish, 7 days/week for up to 2 years. Food consumption, body weight change, blood mercury levels, haematology, urine analysis, serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels and neurological status were assessed regularly in all animals. Clinical signs of methylmercury toxicity -- consisting of ataxia, loss of balance and motor incorrdination -- occured in groups receiving 176 mug Hg/kg/day after 14 weeks of treatment. Pathological findings were confined to the nervous system and consisted of loss of nerve cells with replacement by reactive and fibrillary gloisis. Terminal blood and brain mercury levels were approx. 10 ppm. There were no differences in the time required to develop clinical signs of methylmercury toxicity, tissue mercury levels or pathology between the groups of cats receiving methylmercury as methylmercuric chloride or as methylmercury-contaminated fish, at either dose level. Blood mercury levels in the remaining doses groups appeared to plateau after 40 weeks of treatment. Groups receiving 46 mug Hg/kg/day began to show some neurological impairment after 60 weeks of treatment which did not progress in subsequent weeks. No treatment-related effects were present in groups receiving 20, 8.4 or 3 mug Hg/kg/day after 2 years.