Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/22568
Appears in Collections:Biological and Environmental Sciences Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Grazing livestock are exposed to terrestrial cyanobacteria
Author(s): McGorum, Bruce C
Pirie, R Scott
Glendinning, Laura
McLachlan, Gerry
Metcalf, James S
Banack, Sandra A
Cox, Paul A
Codd, Geoffrey
Contact Email: g.a.codd@stir.ac.uk
Issue Date: 25-Feb-2015
Date Deposited: 2-Dec-2015
Citation: McGorum BC, Pirie RS, Glendinning L, McLachlan G, Metcalf JS, Banack SA, Cox PA & Codd G (2015) Grazing livestock are exposed to terrestrial cyanobacteria. Veterinary Research, 46 (1), Art. No.: 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13567-015-0143-x
Abstract: While toxins from aquatic cyanobacteria are a well-recognised cause of disease in birds and animals, exposure of grazing livestock to terrestrial cyanobacteria has not been described. This study identified terrestrial cyanobacteria, predominantlyPhormidiumspp., in the biofilm of plants from most livestock fields investigated. Lower numbers of other cyanobacteria, microalgae and fungi were present on many plants. Cyanobacterial 16S rDNA, predominantly fromPhormidiumspp., was detected in all samples tested, including 6 plant washings, 1 soil sample and ileal contents from 2 grazing horses. Further work was performed to test the hypothesis that ingestion of cyanotoxins contributes to the pathogenesis of some currently unexplained diseases of grazing horses, including equine grass sickness (EGS), equine motor neuron disease (EMND) and hepatopathy.Phormidiumpopulation density was significantly higher on EGS fields than on control fields. The cyanobacterial neurotoxic amino acid 2,4-diaminobutyric acid (DAB) was detected in plant washings from EGS fields, but worst case scenario estimations suggested the dose would be insufficient to cause disease. Neither DAB nor the cyanobacterial neurotoxins β-N-methylamino-L-alanine and N-(2-aminoethyl) glycine were detected in neural tissue from 6 EGS horses, 2 EMND horses and 7 control horses.Phormidiumwas present in low numbers on plants where horses had unexplained hepatopathy. This study did not yield evidence linking known cyanotoxins with disease in grazing horses. However, further study is warranted to identify and quantify toxins produced by cyanobacteria on livestock fields, and determine whether, under appropriate conditions, known or unknown cyanotoxins contribute to currently unexplained diseases in grazing livestock.
DOI Link: 10.1186/s13567-015-0143-x
Rights: © 2015 McGorum et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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