title: Iron balance in the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus.
abstract: 1. Total body iron in the common vampire bat was 80 +/- 67 mg Fe/kg body wt (mean +/- SD). 2. Mean (+/- SD) iron absorption as measured by the double isotope method was 0.068 +/- 0.0032% Fe. A typical adult bat ingests 6.1 mg Fe/day (Morton & Wimsatt, 1980) of which approximately 4.2 microgram Fe is absorbed. 3. Body iron turnover (BIT) was estimated from the decrease in specific radioactivity of the blood over more than a year. The mean (+/- SD) of the half-life of iron turnover was 379 +/- 101 days and that of the estimate of BIT. 0.14 +/- 0.04% TBI/day. This is equivalent to a loss of approximately 4.6 microgram Fe/day. 4. The common vampire bat maintains iron balance by severely limiting the percentage of iron absorbed from its very high iron diet.
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000378:metabolism*; D004032:Diet; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006207:Half-Life; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D007501:Iron