Animal lead poisoning

Animal lead poisoning (also known as avian plumbism, or avian saturnism for birds) is a veterinary condition and pathology caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in animal's body.

Lead interferes with a variety of body and natural processes.
It is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It mainly affects the haematopoietic system. It also affects the sulfhydryl group containing enzymes and also thiol content of erythrocyte. It inhibits the enzyme delta amino levaminic acid dehydrogenase enzyme(ALA) which is present in the rbc.
It is therefore particularly toxic to young animals, mainly dogs and cattle.

As in humans, animal lead poisoning may be acute (from intense exposure of short duration) or chronic (from repeat low-level exposure over a prolonged period). Acute intoxication can quickly lead to death.

Lead is now a common environmental pollutant. For the birds, a commons source is lead shot, eaten as grit.

Those routes include contaminated air, water, soil, and food, and also, for birds ingestion of grit (lead shots, lead bullets).ingestion of paints,materials that are left out from the factories like batteries etc.

==Prevention==Could begin spraying near wild water known to contain lead using the enzyme delta amino Levamic acid dehydrogenase (ALA).

For precious animals ;

The mainstays of treatment are removal from the source of lead and, for precious animals who have significantly high blood lead levels or who have symptoms of poisoning, chelation therapy with a chelating agent.

Lead, one of the leading causes of toxicity in waterfowl, has been known to cause die-offs of wild bird populations. When hunters use lead shot, waterfowl such as ducks and other species (swan especially) can ingest the spent pellets later and be poisoned ; predators that eat these birds are also at risk. Lead shot-related waterfowl poisonings were first documented in the US in the 1880s. By 1919, the spent lead pellets from waterfowl hunting was positively identified as the source of waterfowl deaths. Lead shot has been banned for hunting waterfowl in several countries, including the US in 1991 and 1997 in Canada. Other threats to wildlife include lead paint, sediment from lead mines and smelters, and lead weights from fishing lines. Lead in some fishing gear has been banned in several countries.

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