Impact of Ergot Alkaloids on Female Reproduction in Domestic Livestock Species

Poole, Rebecca K; Poole, Daniel

doi:10.3390/toxins11060364

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 111 publications

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“…In general, our knowledge about FT has significantly advanced during recent years [1,2,4,17,[37][38][39][40][41]. However, the knowledge about a possible involvement of GI tract microbial communities, especially fungal communities, in FT is still highly limited.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beef cattle that respond differently to fescue toxicosis have distinct gastrointestinal tract microbiota

et al. 2020

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Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum) is a widely used forage grass which shares a symbiosis with the endophytic fungus Epichloë coenophiala. The endophyte produces an alkaloid toxin that provides herbivory, heat and drought resistance to the grass, but can cause fescue toxicosis in grazing livestock. Fescue toxicosis can lead to reduced weight gain and milk yields resulting in significant losses to the livestock industry. The objective of this study was to identify bacterial and fungal communities associated with fescue toxicosis tolerance. In this trial, 149 Angus cows across two farms were continuously exposed to toxic, endophyteinfected, fescue for a total of 13 weeks. Of those 149 cows, 40 were classified into either high (HT) or low (LT) tolerance groups according to their growth performance (weight gain). 20 HT and 20 LT cattle balanced by farm were selected for amplicon sequencing to compare the fecal microbiota of the two tolerance groups. This study reveals significantly (q<0.05) different bacterial and fungal microbiota between HT and LT cattle, and indicates that fungal phylotypes may be important for an animal's response to fescue toxicosis: We found that fungal phylotypes affiliating to the Neocallimastigaceae, which are known to be important fiber-degrading fungi, were consistently more abundant in the HT cattle. Whereas fungal phylotypes related to the genus Thelebolus were more abundant in the LT cattle. This study also found more pronounced shifts in the microbiota in animals receiving higher amounts of the toxin. We identified fungal phylotypes which were consistently more abundant either in HT or LT cattle and may thus be associated with the respective animal's response to fescue toxicosis. Our results thus suggest that some fungal phylotypes might be involved in mitigating fescue toxicosis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beef cattle that respond differently to fescue toxicosis have distinct gastrointestinal tract microbiota

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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“…In general, our knowledge about FT has significantly advanced during recent years [1, 2, 4, 17, 31–35]. However, the knowledge about a possible involvement of GI tract microbial communities, especially fungal communities, in FT is still highly limited.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beef cattle that respond differently to fescue toxicosis have distinct gastrointestinal tract microbiota

Koester

Poole

Serão

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum) is a widely used forage grass which shares a symbiosis with the endophytic fungus Epichloë coenophiala. The endophyte produces an alkaloid toxin that provides herbivory, heat and drought resistance to the grass, but can cause fescue toxicosis in grazing livestock. Fescue toxicosis can lead to reduced weight gain and milk yields resulting in significant losses to the livestock industry. In this trial, 149 Angus cows across two farms were continuously exposed to toxic, endophyte-infected, fescue for a total of 13 weeks. Of those 149 cows, 40 were classified into either high (HT) or low (LT) tolerance groups according to their growth performance (weight gain). 20 HT and 20 LT cattle balanced by farm were selected for 16S rRNA gene and ITS1 region Illumina MiSeq amplicon sequencing to compare the fecal microbiota of the two tolerance groups. This study reveals significantly (P<0.05) different bacterial and fungal microbiota between HT and LT cattle, and indicates that fungal phylotypes may be important for an animal’s response to fescue toxicosis: We found that fungal phylotypes affiliating to the Neocallimastigaceae, which are known to be important fiber-degrading fungi, were consistently more abundant in the HT cattle. Whereas fungal phylotypes related to the genus Thelebolus were more abundant in the LT cattle. This study also found more pronounced shifts in the microbiota in animals receiving higher amounts of the toxin. We identified fungal phylotypes which were consistently more abundant either in HT or LT cattle and may thus be associated with the respective animal’s response to fescue toxicosis. Our results thus suggest that some fungal phylotypes might be involved in mitigating fescue toxicosis. The results of our study provide a basis for investigating the functional role of the gastrointestinal microbiota in fescue toxicosis in more detail in the future.

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“…However, further research is necessary, due to the reported toxicity of ergot alkaloids to mammals, including human. Additionally, the livestock that consumes ergot alkaloids shows various toxic symptoms, including endocrine disruption, reproductive and developmental malfunctions, and blood circulation [15]. The two review manuscripts present in this Special Issue proved the need for further extensive studies on the activity of alkaloids [11,15].…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%