Carlos, there are two books of fairly recent date that will shed light on
this question and many others, even relating to bone deformities such as
"big head" and "twisted calf syndrome" that are the direct result of diet.

The first is Knight and Walter's "Plants Poisonous to Livestock in North
America". This is the work of a veterinarian and a botanist working in
cooperation. The book has good photographs, distribution maps, covers many
plants including those toxic to ruminants, and most importantly, goes into
considerable detail (though not complete detail) as to the physiochemical
mechanism of whatever poison or poisons the plant may possess. The
biochemistry is sufficient to spur you on to looking up the complete
toxicology in textbooks that specifically deal with that. There is also a
good bibliography for each chapter. Don't be put off by the fact that the
book deals with North America; MANY plant genera occur on several or even
all continents, and MOST plants that have ever been used for ruminant or
horse fodder now occur everywhere. Thus for example the book obviously
does deal with alfalfa/lucerne (just as problematic as all the other
leguminous plants, despite its being a common feed constituent) --
originally an Asian species.

The second book is my own "Poison Plants in the Pasture: A Horse Owner's
Guide." I am not a botanist and neither am I a veterinarian; what I am is
a reasonably good researcher with a scientific outlook, and a longtime
horse owner. Maybe I'm also a decent photographer....you will be able to
decide that when you look at the book: it contains over 2,000 BIG photos
showing the specific characteristics that you have to notice in order to
tell plants apart. This is my main gripe with all the plant identification
manuals out there -- the pictures are too small to see what you need to
see! Believe me -- I had over 50 of them on my desk as I researched and
wrote the book. So the first purpose of "PP" is to make it possible for
ordinary people to learn to tell common pasture and forage plants apart. I
review both toxic and nontoxic species, with what are (I hope) thoughtful
essays on each.

I give distribution maps for five world areas: North America north of
Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. But again, it wouldn't take
much to extend this to just about anywhere except perhaps Africa.

"PP" does not give detailed toxicology, but rather refers the reader to
Knight and Walter's book and/or to other manuals listed in the
bibliography. Neither do I focus on ruminants, though in many sections
ruminants and horses are discussed comparatively. I cover both broadleafs
and grasses with the real intention of teaching you how to I.D. the grass
to at least genus. 80 common kinds of grass are discussed plus over 150
toxic broadleafs and about 100 "lookalike" nontoxic broadleafs (primarily
what field botanists are fond of calling "d----d yellow composites").

You can get Knight and Walter's book by looking it up on amazon.com or the
like, or go to www.ivis.org (International Veterinary Information
Service), which by the way is a highly useful thing to belong to anyway,
for anyone wanting plant toxicology, bone diseases, etc. Anyone can join
IVIS -- just tell 'em you're a researcher with serious interest -- you
don't have to be a veterinarian.

Get "Poison Plants in the Pasture" by going to www.equinestudies.org and
clicking on "Bookstore". "PP" by the way is available only on CD-Rom, but
easily printable if you want to take out sections on paper so you can go
look at something in a pasture or compare a suspicious item you see in a
hay bale.

Alberto, I hope I'm not doing something wrong here by mentioning this. I
write these book-sized PDF's primarily to help people. "PP" is over 1,000
pages long and I think it's powerful help for the price, which is $53
bucks, including postage to anywhere in the world, and tax and everything
else. Cheers --

Deb Bennett, Ph.D., Director
Equine Studies Institute
Livingston, Calif. USA
(and the bone lady at Vindolanda)

>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I'm focused on foddering strategies during the early herding strategies
> (near east). Anybody have idea about benefits/limitations for calcifuges
> plants? Especially for ruminants animals during the reproduction cycle?
> Thanks, any information or reference will be great,
>
> Carlos Tornero
> Laboratory for Archaeozoology
> Prehistory Department
> Autonomous University of Barcelona
> Spain
> Tel: +0034 93581 1957
> Added email: [log in to unmask]
>
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