Chronic phenylmercuric acetate toxicity in a horse.

Phenylmercuric acetate (PMA) was administered orally to a horse over a period of 27 weeks (190 days) at a dose rate of 0.4 mg Hg/kg per day. The effects produced were consistent with those of chronic inorganic mercury intoxication. The clinical features included masseter muscle atrophy, difficulty in prehension and mastication, malodorous breath, reduced appetite and weight loss, and reflected significant pathological changes involving the buccal, mandibular and dental tissues. Renal dysfunction was evident terminally and there was degeration and necrosis of the proximal tubular epithelium. Necrotic and mineralized foci were found in facial and masticatory msucles, splenic trabecuale and the myocardium. The central nervous system and the intestinal tract were unaffected. The approximate mean plasma inorganic mercury concentration was 500 ng/ml whereas organic mercury levels in blood were much lower. The renal cortex had the highest inorganic mercury content, three times greater than in the liver and cecum, while organic mercury was highest in those tissues and absent from the kidney. The difference in the effects produced in this horse as compared to those in a horse receiving mercuric chloride at the same mercury dose rate, could be attributed to the more rapid and complete absorption of PMA from the gastrointestinal tract.