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Bloat in Dairy Cattle^*

Dept. of Dairy Husbandry, South Dakota State College, Brookings, S. D.

ABSTRACT

1. Analyses have been completed on gases from cows which have bloated from sweet clover and alfalfa. These gases were collected by inserting a stomach-tube into the gullet of the cows. The gases were collected in gas rubber bags, and in glass, and metal gas tubes. A number of samples of gas were collected from cows which had died from sweet clover and alfalfa bloat. These samples were collected directly from the rumen through the trocar cannula.
   
2. Samples of gas were collected from legume and non-legume plants generated under laboratory conditions. These samples were analyzed for the same gases as the samples from bloated animals.
   
3. No significant differences were indicated in the analyses of the gases from sweet clover and alfalfa plants.
   
4. No significant differences were discernible in the analyses of the gases from legume and non-legume plants generated under laboratory conditions, except in the per cent of carbon dioxide in the corn plant, lowland and brome grasses. The small number of samples analyzed may account for this difference.
   
5. The significant difference in the analyses of the gases from bloated animals and those generated under laboratory conditions both from legume and non-legume plants, is in the methane content of the gas from bloated animals. The methane in the gas from bloated animals averaged about 17 per cent, whereas most of the samples of the gas generated in the laboratory showed no methane, and those which did indicated a negligible percentage.
   
6. Carbon monoxide, a toxic gas, was present in all the samples analyzed. No significant differences obtained in the per cent of carbon monoxide in the gas from different sources.
   
7. The percentage of gases indicated by the analyses do not in themselves point to the cause of bloat, or the cause of death from bloat. It is possible that the rapid formation and absorption of gases when legumes are eaten is due to a series of factors none of which will cause bloat or death in themselves. That is, it is known that carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide are highly toxic gases. These gases are produced under normal feeding conditions, in non-legumes as well as legumes yet are not fatal to the animal. The other gases present in the rumen gas are negative in their effect on the animal, yet these gases may be responsible for inducing the conditions which make the toxic gases fatal by increasing the intra-ruminal pressure or inhibiting the normal functioning of the rumen.
   

^* Journal Series No. 127, South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station.

¹ The writer is indebted to Allen Evans, and Leland Manley for conducting the gas analyses, and to Dr. G. C. Wallis for helpful suggestions in setting up the gas analyses apparatus.