Kittens, taurine deficiency

The high concentration of taurine in the lens of the kitten remains almost unchanged during taurine deficiency, suggesting an important role for taurine in this organ" ... 

Gaull, Taurine deficiency in the kitten Exchange and turnover of ( S) taurine in brain, retina and other tissues, J. Nutr. lo8 l -62 (1978). 

Cats and kittens fed a synthetic diet containing partially-purified casein as the source of protein become taurine deficient and develop retinal degeneration. This degeneration, which eventually results in blindness, can be prevented or reversed by supplementing these diets with taurine but not by supplementation via ostensible taurine precursors, methionine, cysteine or inorganic sulfate (Hayes et al., 1975a,b Schmidt et al., 1976). 

Taurine-deficient diets fed to human infants for 3- weeks (Gaull et al., 1977) and to kittens for 10 weeks (Sturman et al., 1978) have been reported to cause a decrease in plasma taurine concentrations. Because of the limited tissues available for assaying taurine in human infants, it is difficult to determine how accurately plasma taurine concentrations reflect the effect of a taurine-deficient diet on tissue taurine concentrations. In the taurine-deficient kitten, plasma was second to liver only as the most adversely affected taurine pool (sturman et al., 1978). The affect of a relatively short period of a... 

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