Dietary effects of polychlorinated biphenyls on mink.

Poisoning occurred in 32 mink fed diets containing meat from cows which had been fed a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), Aroclor 1254. No live kits were produced and all adult mink died during a 105 day period of feeding a ration containing 3.57 ppm of PCB. At a level of 0.64 ppm of PCB in ration one of 12 mink produced three kits, all of which died during the first day after birth. Clinical signs were limited to weight loss and passage of black tarry feces. The gross lesions seen were yellowish discoloration of the liver and hemorrhage into the abdominal cavity or gastrointestinal tract. Microscopic lesions were nephrosis, fatty de-generation and necrosis of the liver, brain edema, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and fibrosis of coronary arteries. It is concluded that mink are highly sensitive to small quantities of PCB fed for an extended period of time.