Salivation - Atlas of swine pathology
Where:
Possible causes: AppAujeszky's diseaseOther
Salivation and cyanosis of the lower parts of the body are observed in 20 gilts found dead in the same building. It was caused by Nitrogen dioxide (gas poisoning).
Toxic silo gases are a potential danger to livestock housed in close proximity to silos. The twenty gilts were in a pen adjoining a grass silo. Silage was left along the adjoining wall of the pig building 5 days earlier. Post mortem examination revealed extensive lung damage and methaemoglobinaemia (chocolate colour of the blood). Silage fermentation may produce several kinds of gas, including carbon dioxide and nitric oxide. Although carbon dioxide is non-poisonous, it can cause suffocation. Shortly after ensiling green plant material, oxygen is used in fermentation and the nitrates in the plant are released as nitric oxide (NO). This gas quickly escapes from the silage and combines with oxygen in the air to form toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Nitrogen dioxide is poisonous and can injure and kill people as well as livestock.
