Effect of Fluorine on the Nutrition of Swine, with Special Reference to Bone and Tooth

Numerous reports have appeared in the Uterature purporting to show the value of phosphoritic minerals as calcium and phosphorus supplements in animal nutrition. A great variance exists between the results obtained by different investigators. Forbes and others (Oy have inferred that the fluorine content of these naturally occurring products was the cause of the harmful and variable results obtained when these minerals were fed to livestock. Such an assumption seems to be fairly well grounded, since there is some correlation between the fluorine content of various grades of these minerals and the poor results obtained. However, the majority of the investigators have made no attempt to determine whether the feeding of fluorine salts would produce results comparable to those produced when the natural minerals were fed. In the present investigations a study was made of the comparative effects of flourine, in the forms of chemically pure sodium fluoride and the natural phosphate mineral, in the nutrition of swine, with special reference to the effect on bone and tooth composition.