Excursus: Chernobyl effects on animals in Europe In Germany in the aftermath of Chernobyl, malformations were not only observed amongst people but also in animals. There have always been malformations amongst animals. The genetics department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Giessen alone has about 8.000 specimens. One year after Chernobyl, there was an influx as had never been seen before: miscarriages and premature births by cows in Bavaria and Corsica, piglets without eyes, chicks with three legs, rabbits without legs, sheep without fleece or with only one eye, foals with areas of skin missing, baby goats with corkscrew legs or open abdomens. Some breeders reported a loss of up to 40% of young animals. Goats are regarded as the domestic animals most sensitive to radioactivity. In 1987, many breeding animals did not become pregnant. Further, there was an accumulation of miscarriages, premature births, stillbirths and problematic births, lambs that were too small, lambs that were too large, with no swallowing reflex, problems of the thyroid gland, premature deaths of lambs and serious malformations. The reports came from the Rhineland, Saarland, Saar-Pfalz, Rhineland-Pfalz and from the Sauerland. They often came in spite of some considerable pressure from goat breeders’ associations, who did not want the problem to be reported.[114] An above average increase in the occurrence of hermaphrodites, stillbirths and malformations was found amongst the goat population of the southern German states in a survey carried out in 1987 by the Institute for Animal Husbandry and the Genetics of Domestic Animals at the University of Gießen, under the direction of Prof. Dr. J. Steinbach. Data from before (1985-1986) and after the Chernobyl catastrophe (1987) was taken in 133 randomly chosen goat-keeping farms in eight Federal States. No permission was granted to the study group for Bavaria. A total of 890 litters prior to Chernobyl and 794 litters in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster were examined. According to the study, the litter-size decreased from 1.93 to 1.82 after Chernobyl. The proportion of hermaphrodites rose from 2.2 to 3.48%. Stillbirths increased from 4.66 to 5.77%. Congenital malformations of dead lambs increased from 0.93 to 1.32% and congenital malformations of live-born lambs from 0.31 to 1.1%. The effects appeared mainly in the southern States, which had been heavily contaminated by fallout from Chernobyl.[115] Impressive evidence of genetic damage amongst animals can be taken from the scientific drawings of Cornelia Hesse-Honegger. Prior to Chernobyl, she had already been professionally involved with drawing genetic damage in flies following various kinds of stress. After Chernobyl, she spent many years documenting the different genetic changes found amongst leaf bugs (heteroptera). Apart from that she also documented the genetic changes to heteroptera in the vicinity of various nuclear facilities. Her drawings are not only artistically impressive – they also draw attention to a level of radiation damage which does not immediately come to mind, but which is none the less to be taken very seriously.[116] In Great Britain, restrictive measures are still in force for 379 farming businesses with a total of 74,000 hectare and 200,000 sheep, 19 years after Chernobyl due to continuing radioactive pollution.[117] Similar restrictions are to be found in certain areas of other EU member countries, for example, in Sweden and Finland with regard to reindeer, as well as in Ireland. In a survey carried out by the European Commission in 2002, the commission received confirmation that, for example, in game (wild boar, deer), mushrooms and wild berries, as well as in carnivorous fish taken from lakes in certain areas of Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania and Poland, contamination values of caesium-137 could sometimes reach levels as high as several thousand becquerel per kilogram.[118] [119] ratical.org/radiation/Chernobyl/HEofC25yrsAC.html#fn53
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 05:54:34 +0000
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