Moulds and bacteria in brewer’s grains, or the marc of beet sugar or
cider factories derange digestion, or cause abortion. Spoiled potatoes
cause enteritis, vertigo, palsy, in sheep, nephritis and cystitis.
Mouldy bread causes indigestion, urinary and nervous disorder. Mildew.
Musty grain and fodder as in the horse. Ergot causes winter and spring
gangrene of skin, feet, limbs, ears or tail, lethargy, palsy, spasms,
delirium, abortion; variation in toxicity with stage and condition of
growth, privation or liberal supply of water, or succulent vegetables.
Symptoms: varying, mouldy bread causes digestive and urinary trouble,
with marc or ensilage, develops slowly, impaired appetite, salivation,
tympany, colic, diarrhœa, debility, paresis, spasms, delirium.
Duration, 5 hours to 2 weeks. Gangrenous ergotism, necrotic sore,
slough hard, dry, leathery, black, living parts at demarcation line
pink or purple, puffed up, tender, necrosis involves all soft tissues
and bone; nervous form: abortion form. Lesions: congestion of stomach,
bowels, mesenteric glands, brain and meninges, petechiæ. Diagnosis,
from anthrax, from coccidian hemorrhagic dysentery, from foot and
mouth disease, from rinderpest. Prevention, stop or regulate the
injurious fodder, salt and pack the fresh grains or marc. Treatment:
antiferments, potassium iodide, saline purgatives, stimulants, oil of
turpentine, injections, derivatives.
_Causes._ The growth of =moulds= on or in brewer’s grains, which have
been preserved without salting and close packing, has at times rendered
them dangerous poisons (Duvieusart, Wehenkel, Schütz). The refuse or
marc of beet sugar factories, or of cider works may act in a similar
manner. These products, at first neutral or only slightly acid, undergo
an acid fermentation, with an abundant production of acetic, lactic or
butyric acid which adds materially to their action in deranging
digestion. These agents usually require a large amount to prove
deleterious, about 150 to 200 lbs. a day. Arloing found three active
microbian ferments in the pulp of the sugar factories, and four in that
of the distilleries. The marc of apples has even caused abortion
(Cornevin).
=Spoiled potatoes= have caused adynamic enteritis, with vertigo and
paralysis (Zimmermann, Grabin, Holme) and in sheep symptoms of nephritis
and cystitis as well (Kloss).
=Mouldy bread= has been found to cause indigestion and cerebral
disturbances in cows (Cagny) or nervous disorders without digestive,
urinary or febrile trouble (Fröhner, Martin and Varnell).
=Mildew= on the leaves of a grapevine has also poisoned six cows
(Bisseauge).
=Musty= grain and fodder has the same general action as on the horse and
produces paraplegia and other nervous disorders with or without
digestive troubles.
The =isaria fuciformis= has caused the death of cattle which ate the
grasses infested by it.
When we come to the ergots and smuts we find even more evidence of
poisoning than in the horse. Toward the end of our long winters in the
Northern States we occasionally find widespread =gangrenous ergotism=
from eating infested hay, the lesions varying from simple sores around
the top of the hoofs, in the interdigital spaces or on the teats and
mouth, to loosening of part of the sole or wall, shedding of the entire
hoof or sloughing of the entire limb—just above the hoof, at the
fetlock, or in the metatarsal region. Portions of the tail or ears will
similarly slough. This appears to be mainly due to the lessening of the
calibre of the capillaries by contraction of their walls, under the
action of the ergotin and secalin, seconded by the cold of the season.
Cold is, however, by no means essential to its production. The other
most common form of ergotism is the action on the nervous system. The
contraction of the cerebral capillaries and disturbance of the
circulation lead in some cases to a condition of lethargy and apathy in
which the animal fails to eat or ruminate and gradually falls into
marasmus, or paralysis may be induced, or delirium and spasms. Then
finally there is the familiar form of abortion induced apparently by the
contraction of the involuntary muscles of the womb and of its capillary
vessels.
There is, however, a great difference of opinion as to the deleterious
action of ergot. Various experiments with large doses of ergot on
pregnant animals have failed to produce any sign of abortion. The agent,
however, varies in its nature according to the conditions under which it
grew and the stage at which it was collected, so that the failure to
produce the expected result in a given case can by no means be accepted
as disproving its pathogenic properties under other conditions.
The same remarks apply largely to the action of the smuts, which are
often eaten in large quantities with impunity, especially if plenty of
water or succulent vegetables are allowed, whereas under other
conditions as in winter, under the action of cold, with the usual water
supply frozen up, and no succulent food, it proves very destructive.
_Symptoms._ These vary with the particular poison: With mouldy bread the
symptoms may come on promptly with indigestion, tympany, constipation,
marked irritation of the urinary organs, and it may be nervous disorder.
Sometimes, as noted above, the narcotic action is shown with paresis or
paralysis and stupor without any manifest disorder on the part of the
digestive or urinary functions.
Most commonly with mouldy fodders, grains, marc, or ensilage the results
are tardily developed and only after long continued use of the spoiled
food. There is then loss of appetite, and rumination, drivelling of
saliva, some tympany, and abdominal pain shown by frequent movement of
the hind limbs, lying down and rising. The bowels may be costive at
first, but this early gives place to a fœtid diarrhœa, with weak rapid
pulse (100 per minute) palpitations and hurried breathing. The walk
becomes weak, unsteady, staggering or stumbling, and there may appear
marked paresis especially of the hind parts. When nervous excitement
sets in there may be twitching of the muscles of the neck, shoulders or
thigh; the eye rolls or becomes fixed and the pupils are dilated; the
muscles of the face are contracted and the jaws clinched, with grinding
of the teeth. Bellowing or pushing of the teeth and nose, the forehead
or horns against the wall or other obstacles, or the dashing violently
against obstacles is occasionally observed, and indicates in most cases
an unfavorable termination.
The duration of the malady is uncertain. It may not be over five or six
hours in acute cerebral cases, and especially in sheep, and again it may
be prolonged for one or two weeks. Death often takes place in
convulsions.
In =gangrenous ergotism= a necrotic sore with more or less surrounding
swelling may be seen, and a line of demarcation forms of a pink or
purplish aspect along which the separation of the dead tissue takes
place. The slough is usually of a dark red or black color, the red
globules having apparently migrated into the tissues and piled up in the
capillaries in the early stages of stagnation. When the line of
separation is higher, the line of demarcation completely encircles the
limb, the inflammation and swelling is very marked just above this line,
the skin and soft tissues beneath drying and withering up into a dark
red leathery mass, and this is gradually separated by the formation of a
granulating surface above. The process of separation takes place much
more slowly through the bony tissues, and not unfrequently the soft
tissues having become detached, the lower part of the limb is separated
at the first joint below the line of demarcation and the bone from that
line down to its free end remains as a projecting necrosed stump. In the
ear or tail the necrotic portion withers up into a stiff rigid shrunken
slough which becomes detached sooner or later by mechanical violence.
In the =nervous ergotism= the symptoms are largely those of the
adynamia, paresis and convulsions already described.
In =abortion from ergotism= there are usually few premonitory symptoms,
and the occurrence is to be explained by the number of victims in a herd
eating ergot or smut.
_Lesions._ These vary greatly. Usually the congestion and inflammation
are most prominent in the abomasum and small intestine, complicated by
ecchymosis and even extravasation which may so thicken the mucosa as to
block the intestine (Walley). The mesenteric glands are usually gorged
with blood and of a deep red. The brain may be nearly normal or
violently congested and with its meninges covered with petechiæ.
_Diagnosis._ From anthrax this affection is distinguished by the absence
of the specific large bacillus in the blood and of the marked
enlargement of the spleen, by the great prominence of the nervous
symptoms in many cases, and by the history of a dietetic cause.
From the coccidian hemorrhagic dysentery it is diagnosed by the absence
of the coccidia in the stools and the predominance of the nervous
systems.
From foot and mouth disease, the gangrenous ergotism is distinguished by
the facts that the sores are in the nature of sloughs, and not vesicles,
and that some members of the herd are almost certain to show sloughing
of the limb at some distance above the hoof. More important still is the
fact that the daintily feeding sheep and the pig kept in the same yards
do not suffer from the ergotism.
From rinderpest it is differentiated by the fact that the sores on the
mouth (when present) are not of the nature of epithelial concretions,
and they do not appear on the vulva, and more significant still there is
no indication of the introduction of the disease by contagion nor of its
rapid progress from herd to herd. The immunity of sheep from gangrenous
ergotism is another significant feature.
_Prevention_ consists in putting a stop to the supply of the altered
food or, if it must be given, in giving it in small quantities only with
abundance of water or fresh succulent aliment. In the case of grains or
marcs the fermentation may be checked by adding ¼ per cent. of common
salt and packing the material firmly in a close box or silo.
In ergotism, succulent food, water ad libitum, stimulants, poultices,
fomentations or wet bandages, a warm building and pure air are all
important. Usually ergot and smut can be safely fed in relatively
large amount with a liberal ration of potatoes, turnips, beets, green
food or ensilage.
_Treatment_ does not differ materially from that advised for the horse.
Antiferments including potassium iodide, and saline purgatives stand at
the head of the list. Stimulants may be demanded to rouse the torpid
bowels and nervous system and unless contraindicated by
gastro-intestinal inflammation oil of turpentine offers itself as at
once stimulant, antiseptic and eliminating. Injections and
counter-irritants are of use. Then cold (ice, snow, water) to the head,
and the confinement of the patient so that he cannot injure himself or
others are not to be neglected.