Poisons Hindering Oxygen

Transport to Tissue
Nitrates
Uses
 Pickling and curing brines to preserve meats
 Gunpowder and explosives
 Fertilizers
 Therapeutic agent for cyanide poisoning
Sources
 Under no growing conditions of stress
◦ Weather, physical damage, heavily grazed
◦ In plant nitrate accumulates
 In rumen high nitrate converted to nitrite
 In blood high nitrite is poison
◦ Nitrite poisoning
◦ Blood cannot carry oxygen
◦ Death by asphyxiation
Plant sources
 Fresh or dry forage
◦ Johnson Grass
◦ Sudan
◦ Sorghum
◦ Sudan-Sorghum
◦ Wheat
◦ Oats
◦ Rye
◦ Ryegrass
◦ Bermuda
◦ Fescue
Exposure
 Accidental ingestion of fertilizer
 Hazardous concentration in ponds receiving

fertilizer run off water

 Plants
Mechanism of action

Absorption of Conversion Decreased oxygen

excessive amount
Fe2+ to Fe3+ carrying capacity
of nitrate in blood

Death if
Anoxia methaemoglobin
>70-80%
Clinical signs
 Metaemoglobinemia 30%-40%
◦ Tissue hypoxia and low blood pressure
◦ Weak heart beat with subnormal temperature
◦ Muscular tremors
◦ Weakness
◦ Ataxia
 Metaemoglobinemia exceeds 50%
◦ Cyanotic mucous membranes
◦ Dyspnea, tachypnea, anxiety, and frequent
urination
Diagnosis
 Clinical signs
 Chocolate color of blood
 Laboratory analysis for nitrate in both pre-

and postmortem specimens

 Serum nitrate concentration analysis
 Methemoglobin analysis
Treatment
 Methylene blue injection
 Causes methemoglobin to convert back into

normal hemoglobin
 Gastric levage
 Antibiotics to stop microbial conversion of

nitrate into nitrite