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Ammoniated Forage Poisoning: Concentrations of Alkylimidazoles in Ammoniated Forage and in Milk, Plasma and Urine in Sheep and Cow

Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica volume 39, pages 511–514 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

4-methylimidazolc (4-MeI) has until now been the only identified toxic compound in ammoniated forage considered to be of possible etiological significance in ammoniated forage poisoning. However, several authors have concluded that 4-MeI alone cannot explain the toxicity observed (Morgan & Edwards 1986, Nielsen et al 1986, Motoi et at. 1997). On this background, we have examined samples of ammoniated forage and of milk, plasma, and urine collected from ewes and lambs during a previous experimental poisoning study (Sivertsen et al. 1993). We have also studied similar samples from a Norwegian Red Cattle dairy cow fed ammoniated hay for the first 5 days after calving. We have, in addition to the previously known ingredients 4-MeI and 2-methylimida-zole (2-MeI), identified 5 new compounds in these samples, all of which were found to be di-alkylsubstituted imidazoles: 1,2-dimcthylimi-dazole (1,2-diMeI), 1,4-dimethyl imidazole (1,4-diMeI), 1,5-dimethyl imidazole (1,5-diMeI), 2,4-dimethylimidazole (2,4-diMeI) and 2-ethyl, 4-methylimidazole (2Et-4MeI) (Müller et al. 1998). In this paper we present quantitative measurements of these di- and monoalky 1 imidazoles in a selection of the collected samples.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Lada Ivanova for her valuable analytical assistance. We also thank Ã…shild T. Randby and Ottar Kjus in A/S Norsk Forkonservering for providing the ammoniated forage bales; the Laboratory Animal Unit and the Dept. of Reproduction and Forensic Medicine at the Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine for their care of the animals in the feeding experiments; and Are Wiberg in the Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo for the synthesis of the 1,4-dimethyl- and 1,5-dimethylimidazole standards. This study was carried out with financial support from the Research Council of Norway. A short summary of our research in this field has been presented in a congress poster (Sivertsen et al. 1997).

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  1. T. Sivertsen

    Present address: Dept. of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine, P.O.Box 8146 Dep, N-0033, Oslo, Norway

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Toxicology and Chemistry, National Veterinary Institute, Oslo, Norway

    L. Muller, T. Sivertsen & W. Langseth

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  1. L. Muller
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  2. T. Sivertsen
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  3. W. Langseth
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Muller, L., Sivertsen, T. & Langseth, W. Ammoniated Forage Poisoning: Concentrations of Alkylimidazoles in Ammoniated Forage and in Milk, Plasma and Urine in Sheep and Cow. Acta Vet Scand 39, 511–514 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03547777

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Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica

ISSN: 1751-0147