Experimental Soybean Meal Intoxication in Cattle

Abstract

Background: Cattle are commonly fed soybean meal (SBM) and accidental intoxication sometimes occurs. Objectives: To describe the biologic and clinical features of SBM intoxication. Animals: Four steers with ruminal cannula. Methods: Controlled experimental trial. SBM was administered once at 1 and 2% of body weight (BW) via cannula at 2-month intervals.Results: This study showed a 2-phase pathogenic course for 2% BW SBM intoxication. The 1st phase (until 10 hours post-administration) is restricted to ruminal modification with volatile fatty acid overproduction and moderate ruminal ammonia concentration. In the 2nd phase (12-22 hours post-administration), ruminal pH returned to initial values and marked ammonia accumulation occurred in blood, inducing severe metabolic alkalosis with hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and delayed aciduria (30-40 hours post-administration). Among the clinical signs, nervous signs were only observed during the period with increased plasma ammonia concentration. At 1% BW, ruminal and blood modifications were less pronounced than at 2% BW, and clinical signs were not observed.Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: Ammonia accumulation in blood during the second phase is the consequence of continued ammonia production, decreased carbohydrate fermentation, and overwhelming of hepatic detoxifying capacity. Because ammonia accumulation is associated with the clinical signs, treatment of SBM intoxication could be similar to treatment of urea intoxication, including rumenotomy, oral administration of cold water and vinegar, and measurement of ruminal pH.

Colostrum feeding induced alkaline indigestion syndrome in riverine buffaloes- clinical assessment and therapeutic management

“…Alkaline indigestion, an important digestive disorder of ruminants affecting the health and milk yield of dairy animals. Numerous etiological agents like soybean meal, urea, excess feeding of paddy straw, decomposed and putrefied feed as well as drinking of contaminated and sewage water have been implicated as causative factors for alkaline indigestion in bovines (Bartley et al, 1976;Raboisson et al, 2012;Haque and Dey, 1989;Misra and Tripathy, 1963;Hoflund 1967;Nagrajan and Rajmani, 1973). Administration of 5 gm urea per kg body weight along with cooked mixture of different grains via rumen fistula revealed positive correlation of rumen pH and blood ammonia concentration while rumen ammonia and blood urea were not correlated with toxicity signifying the role of readily fermentable feed in suppressing the toxicity.…”

“…by administration of soybean meal (SBM) via cannula at 1 and 2% of body weight revealed marked accumulation of ammonia in blood and severe metabolic alkalosis (Raboisson et al, 2012). Further authors also revealed increased ammonia concentration in blood was due to continued ammonia production from protein degradation, decreased carbohydrate fermentation and overwhelming of hepatic detoxifying capacity.…”

“…Numerous authors have reported syndrome of alkaline indigestion in adult bovines due to overfeeding of protein rich feed ingredients (Bartley et al, 1976;Raboisson et al, 2012;Haque and Dey, 1989;Misra and Tripathy, 1963), poorly digestible roughages like paddy straw (Mohan et al, 2015), decomposed or putrefied feed (Hoflund, 1967) and access to contaminated and sewage water (Nagrajan and Rajmani, 1973). Clinical syndromes due to accidental ingestion or experimental administration of urea in bovines leading to alkaline indigestion have been reported by several workers (Raboisson et al, 2012;Osebold, 1947;Kulkarni and Kulkarni, 2002;Sharma et al, 2017).…”

“…Similarly, numerous experimental studies have been carried out to study the fate of protein rich diet in stomach of ruminants (Bartley et al, 1976;Raboisson et al, 2012;Davis et al, 1959).…”

Effect of acute and chronic excesses of dietary nitrogen on blood neutrophil functions in cattle

“…In experiment 1, blood acid-base balance was associated with purity (Table 3). Higher blood pH has been reported to be linked to high plasma ammonia concentrations (Raboisson et al, 2012a).…”