A GOITRE SURVEY IN ALBINO RATS

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Abstract
A survey was made of 2,651 rats in a locality (Coonoor) where goiter is not endemic; 148 were found at post-mortem examination to have goiter. Temp. conditions of spring and summer months in Coonoor appeared more favorable to development of goiters than those of the colder months. Incidence of goiter was higher in [female][female] than in [male][male]. Goiter was most frequent in rats at the age of sexual maturity. Associated diseases did not appear to have exercised appreciable influence on goiter incidence. The goiters are not due to endemic influences. The rats had no hereditary predisposition, nor were they subjected to insanitary conditions. Well-fed rats (393), living under sanitary conditions, did not develop goiter; but 6.8% of ill-fed rats (2,168) living under sanitary conditions had goiter. Faulty food, deficient in vitamins, was the cause of the goiters. Administration of iodine to deficiently-fed rats was definitely favorable to goiter production; its administration to rats fed on physiologically complete diets was not. Urinary excretion of iodine by rats fed on deficient diets with composition favorable to goiter production, was in some experiments as low as 33 [gamma] per liter and in others as high as 200,000 [gamma] per liter. The histological appearances of 79 of the 148 goiters are briefly described; 44.3% were lymphadenoid, 25.3% were hypertrophic, arid others intermediate, goiters. Based on their findings and the work of others it is concluded that standards of normal thyroid weights for albino rats in one part of the world may not be applicable to those in another part.

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