ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with an approach to geomedical disease in a more narrow sense, mineral deficiencies, and, to some extent, mineral intoxications or imbalance. The teaching of veterinary medicine started in the last part of the 18th century. For many years geomedical aspects have been taught in veterinary education in different subjects, such as animal nutrition, pathology, and internal medicine. In addition to the animal diseases in Norway that veterinarians recognized as geomedical diseases, goiter was reported by A. Loken in 1912, and osteomalacia in cattle was reported by Per Tuff in 1921. Ruminants have in most areas been mainly or totally dependent on local feedstuffs. Industrial aluminum plants are polluting their environment with fluoride-containing smoke dust or soot. Geomedical approaches and understanding are important for the veterinary practitioner in his daily life. A lot of elements essential for man and animals are essential for plants; deficiency in plants may give quite clear symptoms.
