The Role of Zinc, Copper and Calcium in the Etiology of the "meat Anemia".

SEVERE ANEMIA in mice which had been kept on a diet of meat only has recently been described.”2 The anemia, which was mainly macrocytic and slightly hyperchromic,3 could not be cured or prevented by any of the hematopoietic factors such as iron, pyridoxine, folic acid or vitamin B12 alone or in combination.2 Replacement of one-quarter of the muscle meat by liver prevented the anemia completely.2’4 Liver contains more copper than muscle, and since the addition to the meat of an amount of copper equal to that present in the added liver also prevented the anemia, it was assumed that “meat anemia” of mice is a dietary copper deficiency anemia. Further experiments threw some doubt on this assumption. Mice fed a milk diet which did not provide more copper than meat did not become anemic within a period of 6 weeks, although the meat diet did cause a severe anemia within this period. The milk diet would probably have caused anemia if the observation period had been extended.#{176} The fact that feeding meat results in a severe anemia so quickly suggests an etiology other than