Mycotoxicoses of grazing animals in New Zealand

Mycotoxicoses of ruminants and horses

“…In severe cases, edema, hemorrhages, and even necrosis may be observed in the urinary bladder. 54,75,80 The serum activities of gamma-glutamyl transferase and aspartate aminotransferase and the serum concentrations of bilirubin are increased in affected animals. Gamma-glutamyl transferase is the best indicator of the disease, and high serum concentrations may persist for periods of 3-6 months.…”

“…In New Zealand, other practices have been used to prevent facial eczema, including dosing the animals with zinc salts to protect them against the toxic effect of sporidesmin, spraying the pastures with fungicides to reduce spore production, and breeding sheep or cattle with increased resistance to the toxin. 75 The substitution of toxigenic strains of P. chartarum by nontoxigenic strains was proposed in New Zealand as a way to control facial eczema. Unfortunately, nontoxigenic strains, initially representing 80-90% of the isolates, did not persist in the pastures and constituted only 4% of the strains after 4 months.…”

“…Acremonium lolii) in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). 75,80 The main indole-diterpenoid tremorgens found in L. perenne are paxilline and lolitrems, primarily lolitrem B, 23,30,71,80 which are believed to act on γ-aminobutyric acid receptors disrupting neuromuscular control. 43 Neotyphodium lolii also produce ergopeptide alkaloids, which have been associated with reduced milk production due to prolactin depression in cattle and sheep, hyperthermia and heat stress in sheep during the summer, and other signs such as reduction of weight gains and fecal contamination of wool (dags) in lambs (Duringer JM, DeLorme MJM, Lehner A, et al: 2007, A review of the ergot alkaloids found in endophyte-infected tall fescue and perennial ryegrass and their metabolism after ingestion by livestock.…”

Biomass Reducing Potential and Prospective Fungicide Control of a New Leaf Blight of Miscanthus × giganteus Caused by Leptosphaerulina chartarum

“…However, investigations conducted to identify effective chemical fungicide treatments for the control of L. chartarum on pasture grasses have been performed [25,26,28,30,37] due to the veterinary importance of this fungus [1,8,12,15,19,21,29,33]. In our experiments, cyproconazole, flutriafol, prothioconazole, and tebuconazole treatments resulted in consistent and significantly lower disease severity and belonged to the DMI group (Table 3).…”

“…chartarum has been known to be an important ascomycetous fungus, not because it causes plant diseases, but because of the worldwide mycotoxicosis of ruminant animals from its potent toxic metabolite sporidesmin produced in its spores and ingested through grazing on infected pastures [1,8,12,15,19,21,29,33]. Sporidesmin, a hepatotoxin produced by the fungus is associated with 'pithomycotoxicosis' (or pithomyces poison-induced liver damage), a potentially fatal photosensitization disease of sheep and other grazing ruminants, commonly referred to as 'facial eczema' because of its post-liver-damage symptoms [8,9].…”