Botulism poisoning and slurrying?

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frozzy

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Just a question. Could leaving ponies on a field whilst it was slurried possibly cause botulism poisoning?(not my ponies BTW)
I know a person who left two ponies on a field whilst it was slurried and within two weeks one had colicked and the other presented with grass sickness like symptoms and was put to sleep three days later.
This scenario has bothered me since it happened.
I have seen a pony recover from botulism caused by toxic haylage, it was extremely distressing to watch but the end result was favourable for the pony.
 
I think it depends what kind of slurry, there has been a lot of research in NI which has resulted in a link between poultry litter and botulism in grazing animals.

Essentially, the bacteria which causes botulism resides in the soil, and therefore I suppose there is a potential for a covering of slurry to stimulate more favourable conditions for the bacteria to grow, so it could increase the risk.

Regardless, I would not be grazing anything on slurry for at least a fortnight after spreading, what a dire prospect to be turned out onto!
 
Its not as if they were turned out into, they had wintered out so were out 24/7.I had a gut feeling that something nasty would happen. I know that botulism causes paralysis of gut (hence botox for wrinklies) so probably did display as grass sickness.The vet wasnt told about them being out grazing on the fields that had been slurried so I shouldnt think it would occur to her.
 
Botulism is caused by the toxin made by the mould clostridium botulinum I think. Check out mycotoxins on the forum - those are the toxins made by moulds and fungi. They are thought to cause colic, liver damage, reproductive problems, skin troubles, death. Only way to help a horse which is ingesting the mycotoxins ( and that is most of our horses as mycotoxins can be in hay, feed, pasture and bedding etc) is to feed an adsorbant that will bind to the toxin in the stomach and pass through the system. Lots of different moulds/fungi so really difficult. Even last autumn's wetness caused puff balls in our fields and now horse has liver troubles, so putting out with slurry is definitely a death risk IMO.
 
HappyHooves said:
Botulism is caused by the toxin made by the mould clostridium botulinum I think. Check out mycotoxins on the forum - those are the toxins made by moulds and fungi. They are thought to cause colic, liver damage, reproductive problems, skin troubles, death. Only way to help a horse which is ingesting the mycotoxins ( and that is most of our horses as mycotoxins can be in hay, feed, pasture and bedding etc) is to feed an adsorbant that will bind to the toxin in the stomach and pass through the system. Lots of different moulds/fungi so really difficult. Even last autumn's wetness caused puff balls in our fields and now horse has liver troubles, so putting out with slurry is definitely a death risk IMO.
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Clostridium botulinum is a bacterium, not a mould. The toxins they produce are not mycotoxins but neurotoxins.

There is a definite risk with slurry and horses, in fact one hypothesis is that grass sickness is caused by a type of C botulinum but caused by the organism reproducing and producing toxins in the horse's gut, rather than ingestion of the toxins from the environment. Even if the horses didn't contract botulism, there are a whole host of other nasties (including other species of clostridia) that could cause death/illness.
 
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