On August 6, 50 cows of the Piedmont breed on a farm in Sommariva del Bosco, near Turin in the Piedmont region, were struck down by acute poisoning with durrhine, which is naturally present in young sorghum shoots, but not in a concentration as high as that found in the samples taken on site.
"We suspect the drought to be responsible for the very large amount of durrhine found in the sorghum plants," Stefano Giantin, a veterinarian at the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Piedmont, Liguria and Val d', told AFP. Aosta.
Sorghum is one of the cyanogenic plants, which are the cause of very serious poisonings with very rapid evolution (less than an hour).
Symptoms appear very quickly (10 to 15 minutes after ingestion) and death occurs within 15 to 30 minutes after respiratory, nervous and muscular disorders, accompanied by tremors and convulsions.
Durrhine is a toxic substance for animals found in sorghum, particularly in the young shoots which use it as a means of self-defense against herbivores: when it is hydrolyzed in the forestomach of ruminants, it releases cyanide of hydrogen.
"Normally, it does not lead to death", underlines Stefano Giantin.
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But in the sorghum sprouts taken from Sommariva del Bosco, the analyzes showed that the concentration of durrhine amounted to 10,717 mg/kg, a quantity deemed "very abnormal" by Mr. Giantin.
A high presence due according to the first analyzes to the water stress caused by the drought affecting Italy and Europe in general.
In animals that died at Sommariva, the amount of hydrogen cyanide was more than 900 mg/kg, while a dose above 700 mg/kg is considered fatal for cattle.
The only way to prevent death in these affected animals is to quickly inject them with sodium thiosulphate, which has the effect of neutralizing the cyanide.
It is moreover this antidote which made it possible to save around thirty heads of cattle on August 11, when three new farms in Piedmont were affected by the same phenomenon, which nevertheless caused the death of 14 other cows.
© 2022 AFP