The effects of dietary ingestion of nickel recovery slag as a grit source on avian bone

Abstract

Nickel recovery slag has been ubiquitously deposited in the environment of the Sudbury, Ontario basin giving merit to a study of the impact of this foreign material on wildlife in the area. In this work, the effects of ingestion of this largely metallic grit source on the bone health of Columbia Livia Domestica pigeons was measured. This was accomplished by controlling the diets of two groups of birds, one given exclusively limestone grit, the second given exclusively slag as a grit source. After one year of this controlled diet, the subjects were euthanized and their tibiotarsi were subsequently harvested for testing. Tests performed on the tibiotarsi including breaking strength, Young’s modulus, cortical thickness, density, bone mineral density, and mass spectrometry with a focus on iron and calcium concentrations. Additionally, conventional micrographs and scanning electron micrographs with accompanying energy dispersive spectrometry were collected. Our analyses of the results are consistent with degraded bone physiology in the slag‐fed group compared to the control birds.