Xenobiotic biotransformation in livers and lungs of adult black-tailed deer: comparison with domestic goat and sheep.

1. The capacity of liver and lung tissue of black-tailed dear (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) to biotransform xenobiotics was compared in vitro to the domestic sheep and goat. Donor animals were all females of varying ages. Tissues from the black-tailed deer were collected in the wild. A variety of biotransformation enzymes were measured in both microsomal and cytosolic fractions. 2. Deer liver was lower in total cytochrome P450 concentration, but mono-oxygenase activities were greater compared to sheep and goat. The opposite was true for the lung. 3. Epoxide hydrolase activities were significantly different in deer vs sheep and goat. 4. In general, both hepatic and pulmonary activities were more similar between sheep and goat than either species compared to the deer, however, the magnitude of the hepatic differences did not exceed 5-fold. 5. Based on these limited results, there is no reason to discredit the sheep or goat as a toxicity testing model for deer.