Mycotoxins in Pasture

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LVVOVM24

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Hello,

We have some pasture that is causing our horses liver damage. The ground does not have heavy metals but Mycotoxins suspected. We really need to get these fields sorted. Has anyone used Alltech to test with results of what they are dealing with? Yes, I know it’s like finding a needle in a haystack but surely at least trying to work out what mycotoxins we are dealing with would be a helpful start to managing the land.

The horses are off the land but it’s not sustainable as we don’t have enough grazing. We are next to corn fields, could this make a difference or cause issues? No reason to suspect liver fluke and removing horses from land seems to bring their enzymes down, putting them back on put them up again.

Put them on mycoscorb but I’m concerned that they graze and this will only work if it’s in the digestion system at the same time as the toxin?
 
We considered using Altech but the YO wasn’t happy with us doing it so can’t advise on that but ‘Horses with liver damage’ on Facebook is a great group.

I was on a livery yard and we discovered every single horse had liver damage. The pattern meant it must of been grazing, possibly mycotoxin. We all left as YO wasn’t interested in looking at what it could be and became aggressive.. every horse recovered (and improvements were saw in the first 6 weeks on the bloods) but took some over 16 months to fully recover.
 
Another member a while ago used Alltech for testing the field grasses and got results of fusarium mycotoxins, that was causing liver damage in the herd on that land.

That land had not been grazed for a while, and was long old grasses, with new shoots growing through the older stalks and leaf mulch.

What is the state of the grazing on the land you’re concerned with?
 
Hormonal Filly said:
@PurBee was a wealth of knowledgeable when my horse was experiencing the liver issues! Still very thankful for all your advise then (which was 2 years ago now!)
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So glad to hear the recovery of your mare and the other horses when moved off that land. It was sad the YO wasn’t helpful or interested in solving it though.
 
PurBee said:
Another member a while ago used Alltech for testing the field grasses and got results of fusarium mycotoxins, that was causing liver damage in the herd on that land.

That land had not been grazed for a while, and was long old grasses, with new shoots growing through the older stalks and leaf mulch.

What is the state of the grazing on the land you’re concerned with?
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That’s interesting - our land has been grazed on with short breaks. The quality seems quite average.

Did that person make any changes to the one that you know off? To sort out the problem.
 
Hormonal Filly said:
We considered using Altech but the YO wasn’t happy with us doing it so can’t advise on that but ‘Horses with liver damage’ on Facebook is a great group.

I was on a livery yard and we discovered every single horse had liver damage. The pattern meant it must of been grazing, possibly mycotoxin. We all left as YO wasn’t interested in looking at what it could be and became aggressive.. every horse recovered (and improvements were saw in the first 6 weeks on the bloods) but took some over 16 months to fully recover.
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Wow - I’m glad they are recovering! Sorry it didn’t sound like you were well supported by the YO!
 
LVVOVM24 said:
That’s interesting - our land has been grazed on with short breaks. The quality seems quite average.

Did that person make any changes to the one that you know off? To sort out the problem.
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They moved their horses to other lands while they regernerated their land.

If your land is regularly grazed annually with short rest periods, it’s less likely that old growth of grasses going mouldy and toxic would be the cause.

Do you have any drains on your land - or drains from other fields that flow onto your land?
Are there any septic tank sewerage system houses that are higher than your fields and potentially subsoil flow from up there is making its way to topsoil lower down?

What is spread on the land? Fully rotted manures are fine as the pathogens get destroyed during the rotting-down process. But partially rotted manure could well harbour pathogens that would then be spread all over the land and the horses ingest them while grazing.

Is there a pond on the land or other bodies of sitting water which the horses have access to drink from? These can pose pathogen risks as the water isn’t flowing and becomes still and stagnant, growing algaes and pathogens. Usually algae toxins cause quite acute critical illness episodes, so unlikely, but if it’s not algae water, other pathogens in ponds due to the water being still and stagnant are a potential risk.

Another element to consider is wildlife. Are there any rabbits/hares/foxes/deer/badgers etc that are also on the land regularly? Sometimes the poop and pee from wild animals can have certain diseases that the stock animals grazing that land have a risk of picking up. It’s not the most common cause of paddock toxicity, but should be considered if there’s any regular wild animal visitors on the land.
 
Yes ours have short rest periods but definitely not overgrown. They do hold water but not really excessively though.

No drains flowing or septic tank sewerage. We are next to farm fields - corn fields and vet doesn’t think it’s fertiliser.

No manure is spread on the land. No bodies of water. We get other wildlife (few foxes and rabbits) but are not particularly overrun with anything.
 
LVVOVM24 said:
Yes ours have short rest periods but definitely not overgrown. They do hold water but not really excessively though.

No drains flowing or septic tank sewerage. We are next to farm fields - corn fields and vet doesn’t think it’s fertiliser.

No manure is spread on the land. No bodies of water. We get other wildlife (few foxes and rabbits) but are not particularly overrun with anything.
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The neighbouring corn fields pesticide use would be worthwhile investigating. Corn has root damaging pests, corn ear damaging pests, and a conventional farm agronomy plan would be of timed sprayings to prevents these effects. If large tractor boom equipment is used, which is likely on large fields, there’s possibility of spray drift to neighbouring lands, most especially if there’s a breeze while spraying.
The pesticides used for certain crops are classed for those crops, and due to them being an arable crop, would not have concern of animal grazing pull-off time periods, that most grazing field pesticides do.

You could ask the neighbouring farm / their agronomist for information on what is used annually on their corn to gauge if that’s a potential chemical intoxicant.
There’s no point in guessing which pesticide it could be as there’s so many, with varying mixes of ingredients.
Transparency is required by all farms ideally to help determine if there’s any cross contamination of anything used on farms, affecting neighbouring farms.

A soil test could then be conducted in your fields closer to the corn fields to determine if there’s spray-drift or rainwater leaching from the corn-sprayed land onto your land - if their land is on a higher gradient than yours would be the possibility of leaching.
If your land is prone to sitting water as you say, and is a slightly lower gradient than theirs, (with no intermediary drains between the farms) that’s a possibility of accumulation of chemicals from their soil rainwater run-off into those water-logged-prone areas of your fields.

Someone on another forum living rurally UK has a hedge facing a neighbouring tillage farm. The side facing the neighbouring farm had all died due to spray drift of herbicides. A slight low breeze will carry liquid mist from spray booms. Even on a still day there’s the likelihood of drift when the land is being sprayed that’s the closest to your land.

Another contamination route to consider is your lands water supply. Is it a well? If it is a well, a water test is a good idea just to rule it out. Expecially for heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria. It’s advised to carry out annual water well tests but no-one does. Often wells are decades old and groundwater supplies can change in composition over time.
 
PurBee said:
The neighbouring corn fields pesticide use would be worthwhile investigating. Corn has root damaging pests, corn ear damaging pests, and a conventional farm agronomy plan would be of timed sprayings to prevents these effects. If large tractor boom equipment is used, which is likely on large fields, there’s possibility of spray drift to neighbouring lands, most especially if there’s a breeze while spraying.
The pesticides used for certain crops are classed for those crops, and due to them being an arable crop, would not have concern of animal grazing pull-off time periods, that most grazing field pesticides do.

You could ask the neighbouring farm / their agronomist for information on what is used annually on their corn to gauge if that’s a potential chemical intoxicant.
There’s no point in guessing which pesticide it could be as there’s so many, with varying mixes of ingredients.
Transparency is required by all farms ideally to help determine if there’s any cross contamination of anything used on farms, affecting neighbouring farms.

A soil test could then be conducted in your fields closer to the corn fields to determine if there’s spray-drift or rainwater leaching from the corn-sprayed land onto your land - if their land is on a higher gradient than yours would be the possibility of leaching.
If your land is prone to sitting water as you say, and is a slightly lower gradient than theirs, (with no intermediary drains between the farms) that’s a possibility of accumulation of chemicals from their soil rainwater run-off into those water-logged-prone areas of your fields.

Someone on another forum living rurally UK has a hedge facing a neighbouring tillage farm. The side facing the neighbouring farm had all died due to spray drift of herbicides. A slight low breeze will carry liquid mist from spray booms. Even on a still day there’s the likelihood of drift when the land is being sprayed that’s the closest to your land.

Another contamination route to consider is your lands water supply. Is it a well? If it is a well, a water test is a good idea just to rule it out. Expecially for heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria. It’s advised to carry out annual water well tests but no-one does. Often wells are decades old and groundwater supplies can change in composition over time.
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Thank you for this. Really useful. We have now done a soil test but it is not showing any contamination. Between us and the corn fields it’s well drained and has bush land. It doesn’t seem to cause any run off from their fields. And would you expect this to be seasonal? The livers enzymes had increased before any spraying whatsoever this year.

Would you recommend trying anything else? It seems to point to mycotoxins - perhaps different ones to those associated with long rye grass.
 
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