Fatal Clostridium botulinum toxicosis in eleven Holstein cattle fed round bale barley haylage

• Published in: Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 453 - 455
• Main Authors: Kelch, WJ, Kerr, LA, Pringle, JK, Rohrbach, BW, Whitlock, RH
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA J Vet Diagn Invest 01-09-2000; SAGE Publications; American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians
• Subjects: Animal bacterial diseases; Animal Feed - microbiology; Animal Husbandry; Animal productions; Animals; Bacterial diseases; Biological and medical sciences; Botulinum Toxins - toxicity; Botulism - microbiology; Botulism - mortality; Botulism - veterinary; Cattle; Cattle Diseases - microbiology; Cattle Diseases - mortality; Clostridium botulinum; Diagnosis, Differential; Disease Outbreaks - veterinary; Fatal Outcome; Female; Fermentation; Food Contamination; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hordeum - microbiology; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Infectious diseases; Medical sciences; Terrestrial animal productions; Vertebrates; Barley; Nervous system diseases; Clostridium botulinum; Bovine; Clostridiales; Differential diagnostic; Infection; Symptomatology; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Botulism; Silage; Food poisoning; Clostridiaceae; Bacteriosis; Bacteria; Artiodactyla; Veterinary; Biological contamination; Ungulata; Feed
• ISSN: 1040-6387; 1943-4936
• DOI: 10.1177/104063870001200511

Department of Comparative Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37901-1071, USA.
Twenty-two lactating Holstein cattle in Tennessee had clinical signs of intoxication with preformed Clostridium botulinum toxin. These signs included weakness, paralysis of the tongue and chest muscles, abdominal breathing, and, in 11 of the 22 cows, death. Differential diagnoses included hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia, carbohydrate overload, and several toxicoses including mycotoxin, lead, nitrate, organophosphate, atropine or atropine-like alkaloid, and botulism. A diagnosis of botulism by the ingestion of preformed C. botulinum type B toxin was made by eliminating these other diseases, by finding C. botulinum type B spores in 3 bales of round bale barley haylage fed to these cattle, and by isolating preformed type B toxin from 1 of the 3 bales. Confirmation of the toxin type was made by demonstrating mouse lethality by intraperitoneal injection of specimen extracts with neutralization by C. botulinum type B antitoxin. The haylage, harvested green and encased in black plastic bags to facilitate fermentation, was presumably contaminated by the botulinum toxin when fermentation failed to produce enough acid to lower the pH to 4.5, the pH below which C. botulinum growth is inhibited. Farmers and ranchers who use round hay balers to produce haylage should be alert to this potential problem.