D6-L«ic«stor Farming, Saturday, May 20, 1995
COMMON
POISONOUS PLANTS
While most plants are benefi
cial, some are hazardous to ani
mals and human life.
Pennsylvania has about 100 toxic
plants and some of these are re
sponsible for deaths of domestic
livestock every year.
The number of cases of toxicos
is (plant poisoning) in livestock
far outweighs those reported for
humans. Accurate statistics are
not available, but it is estimated
that several thousand animals die
annually in the U.S. from plant
toxicosis.
With houses springing up
everywhere in southeast Pennsyl
vania, the rural/urban interface is
dramatically increasing. Many
farm neighbors are unfamiliar
with the plants that are toxic and
many of them are found in our
home landscapes. Homeowners
bordering farmland or pastures
should not throw yard waste over
the fence or onto cropland without
consulting the farmer or landown
er.
Following are some common
plants that are poisonous to farm
animals.
• Garden Iris - Grown around
the home as an ornamental plant,
the iris contains an irritant in the
leaves or root stalks which can
produce gastroenteritis if ingested
by livestock in sufficient amounts.
• Holly - Common holly, a fa
vored ornamental in landscapes
around the home, has berries that
are poisonous and cause vomiting,
diarrhea, and stupor in animals if
ingested in large amounts.
• Morning Glory - Hogs, sheep.
cattle, and goats are especially
susceptible to poisoning from
overdoses of the hallucinogenic
seeds produced by the morning
glory.
• Bracken Fern - This plant is
poisonous in a fresh or dried con
dition causing rough hair coats,
listless attitudes, and mucous dis
charge in ruminant animals such
as sheep, cattle, and goats. Elevat
ed temperatures, swelling of the
neck, and difficult breathing may
occur. Monogastrics, like swine
may show anorexia and incoor
dination.
• Rhubarb - The flat leaf blade
is the toxic part of the rhubarb
plant that causes staggering, ex
cessive salivation, convulsions,
and death in most classes of live
stock.
• English Ivy - All species of
livestock have exhibited toxicosis
from English Ivy with symptoms
including local irritation, exces
sive salivation, nausea, excite
ment, difficult breathing, severe
diarrhea, thirst and coma.
• Wild Cherry - As far as plants
go, wild cherry is probably the
most common cause of livestock
poisoning known. The most com
mon exposure occurs when limbs
are blown- down or are trimmed
and thrown into a fenced area. The
wilted leaves are toxic and cause
anxiety, staggering, falling down,
convulsions, rolling of eyes,
tongue hanging out, loss of sensa
tion, and dilated pupils. The ani
mal then becomes quiet, bloats
and dies within a few hours of in
gestion.
• Yew - This popular, needlelike
shrub grown around the home
contains poisonous alkaloids.
Symptoms of yew poisoning are
gastric distress, diarrhea, vomit
ing, tremors, dilated pupils, re
spiratory difficulty, weakness, fa
tigue, collapse, coma, convul
sions, circulatory failure, and
death. Survival after yew poison
ing is rare.
• Oaks - Acoms and young
shoots can cause severe poison
ing, especially if eaten in quantity.
Cattle, sheep, horses, and swine
will display anorexia, constipation
that develops into diarrhea, gas
troenteritis, thirst and excessive
urination.
• Mountain Laurel - Native or
wild Mountain Laurel, rhododen
dron and azalea are all considered
poisonous and highly toxic to
ruminants. Symptoms of poison
ing include anorexia; repeated
swallowing; profuse salivation;
watering of the mouth, eyes, and
nose; loss of energy; slow pulse;
low blood pressure, incoordina
tion; dullness and depression.
Death is preceded by coma.
Controlling Fly Populations
There are more than 10 million
horses raised in the United States
for pleasure riding, breeding, and
racing. There are also 3.2 million
horse owners, who provide their
horses with proper housing facili
ties. They must also maintain
proper environmental conditions
for their horses, but the fly can
cause many problems for horse
and other types of livestock pro
duction enterprises.
Housing facilities for horses
basically consist of tiestalls, box
stalls, or open sheds, and large
amounts of sawdust, or wood
shavings are typically used as bed
ding. The numerous edges and
comers in the stalls, and the large
amounts of bedding soaked with
urine and manure provide an ideal
fly breeding habitat
Also, a horse produces about 40
pounds of manure per day, and
this, combined with bedding,
spilled feed, and water, provides
an excellent environment for fly
breeding. The tinje-consuming
and difficult task of cleaning out
stalls with hand tools also presents
a disposal problem. If the manure
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is piled, the piles can support large
amounts of fly breeding.
Other livestock such as sheep
and goats present similar prob
lems of fly control as horses be
cause housing is similar. Sheep
and goats are usually, housed in
open sheds or indoor pens with
ample bedding, spilled feed and
water, and accumulated urine and
manure providing ideal conditions
for fly production. Manure remov
al and disposal for sheep and goats
is also a problem because manure
removal is practiced less frequent
ly than in horse enterprises. Sheep
and goats also spend more time
sleeping and eating in their shel
ters than horses and therefore they
create a larger fly breeding prob
lem.
Housing for sheep, goats, and
horses should be located on well
drained sites and graded so that
surface water does not enter the
sheds. Improper drainage and
leaking waterers are the major
contributors to wet bedding,
which encourages fly breeding.
Following is a fly control
Driving Clinics Set
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) —Well-known carriage driv
ing judge and clinician Lore
Homer will conduct a series of
4-H regional driving clinics in
June.
A registered judge for both the
American Driving Society and the
American Horse Shows Associa
tion, Homer has been successful in
all phases of pleasure and com
bined driving. She has shown the
Morgan Open Competition
Champion for several years and
the 1989 World Champion Mor
gan in Carriage Driving. Last
year, Homer won both the Devon
Horse Show Single Horse
4-Wheel Division and Single
Horse Championship.
Clinic participants will learn
correct procedures for training,
harnessing, and driving horses and
ponies, with emphasis on proper
turnout and safety techniques for
handling and driving. Current 4-H
driving rules and procedures will
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CUMMINGS and NICKER, Inc. ,
Wholesale 'Distributors
100-120 Lehigh Ave. • P.O. Box 928
Batavia, New York 14021-0928
716/343-5411
4-H Regional
You must preregister before
June 15 for these popular driving
clinics. Verification of current
rabies vaccination is required. For
more information or to register,
contact Phil Hoy in Lawrence
County, (412) 654-2741. Cindy
Gray in Centre County (814)
364-9907, Rick Smith in Sullivan
County (717) 928-8941, or Deb
Dietrich in Berks County (610)
378-1327.
checklist for livestock and horse
facilities:
Potential major fly breeding
areas:
• Comers and edges of stalls
• Under feed mangers
• Under waterers
• Margins and under stored hay
and grain
• old feed in bunkers
• wet spilled feed
• Piles of manure and bedding
• Wet bedding due to entrance
of surface water.
Control measures:
• Clean stalls frequently
• Ventilate well to dry bedding
• Compact and cover piles of re
moved manure and bedding
• Clean up spilled feed fre
quently
• Grade to prevent infusion by
surface water
• Residual insecticide spray on
surfaces and adjacent vegetation
• Mist for adult fly control as
needed
• Fly bait stations
• Larviciding.
Contributed by Jeff Bollinger
also be discussed.
Clinics will be held on June 19
at the Lawrence County Fair
grounds in New Castle, June 20 at
the Centre County Fairgrounds in
Centre Hall, June 21 at the Mon
tanvale Farm in Forksville (Sulli
van County), and June 22 at the
Berks County 4-H Center Show
Grounds in Leesport. All clinics
begin at 3:00 p.m. and are limited
to 20 horses each. Cost is $5 for
40-H members and $lO for non
members with horses or ponies
and carts. Spectators will be
admitted for $2.
100 Stover Drive
Carlisle, PA 17013
717/249-6720