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Occurrence and clinical manifestations of ergot and fescue toxicoses

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Part of the book series: Current Topics in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science ((CTVM,volume 33))

Abstract

Historically, ergotism in animals has been defined as a disease of livestock consuming the sclerotia of Claviceps sp. infected grasses. The gangrenous form of ergot toxicity most frequently occurs when animals are exposed to Claviceps purpurea on feed grains and pasture grasses. This type of ergotism is a great risk to livestock, especially cattle. The convulsive form of ergotism, a nervous disorder ranging from mild tremors to severe tetany, is observed in cattle grazed on Paspalum grasses infected with Claviceps paspali [24, 45, 49, 50, 57].

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© 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht

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Robbins, J.D., Porter, J.K., Bacon, C.W. (1986). Occurrence and clinical manifestations of ergot and fescue toxicoses. In: Richard, J.L., Thurston, J.R. (eds) Diagnosis of Mycotoxicoses. Current Topics in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, vol 33. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4235-6_6

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