Determination of Biogenic Amines in Fæces of Normal Dairy Cattle

Abstract

DAIRY cattle are very sensitive to stimuli of external and internal origin that affect gastro-intestinal movements. This may involve intestinal autointoxication—‘indigestion’—even after the intake of feed of normal composition. A special kind of intestinal auto-intoxication is the so-called ‘nutrition tetany’ (‘grass tetany’), which is characterized by a sharp drop of the magnesium content of the blood in practically all the cases examined. According to Seekles¹, it is probable that in nutrition tetany, more than in other intestinal disorders, certain poisons of intestinal origin interfere with processes regulating magnesium, giving rise to a shift of magnesium from the blood into the tissues. Chronic and acute forms of nutrition tetany have been observed in which diarrhœa occurs with the passage of evil-smelling, loose fæces, pointing to abnormal fermentation and putrefaction in the intestinal tract. The poisons of intestinal origin are, inter alia, amines formed from amino-acids by bacterial decarboxylases.