PBDEs and feline hyperthyroidism

THE recent Viewpoint article by Hill and Shaw ( VR , September 6, 2014, vol 175, pp 228-229) raises interesting questions about the contribution of environmental factors in the development of feline hyperthyroidism, a condition which has increased exponentially since first being described as a clinical disease in the late 1970s (Peterson and others 1979). Our research has sought to investigate a potential link between polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and feline hyperthyroidism (Chow and others 2014). PBDEs are flame-retardants, whose introduction in the late 1970s coincides temporally with the recognition (and increasing frequency) of feline hyperthyroidism (Dye and others …