Accidental suppression of the accumulation of radioiodide by the thyroids of Japanese quail exposed to an iodinated disinfectant.

The walls and floor of a room housing a Japanese quail colony were treated with a commercial disinfectant containing iodine complexed to organic molecules. The room was washed vigorously with hot water using a pressure hose, a procedure discouraged by instructions on the shipping container. A condensate, tinged yellow-brown presumably by elemental iodine, settled on the walls, ceiling and quail pens. Accumulations of tracer doses of iodide-125 or iodide-131 by the thyroid glands of these birds were approximately one-seventh (6-hour uptake) to one-thirtieth (18-hour uptake) as great as for control birds from non-disinfected areas.