Outbreak of botulism in a dairy herd in Turkey

Table 1 Clinical and neurological findings in 26 cattle with botulism

Variable	Finding	Number of cattle
Appetite	Decreased	9
	Absent	17
Ruminal motility	Reduced	9
	Absent	17
Salivation	Mild	12
	Marked	14
Tongue strength	Moderately reduced	7
	Severely reduced	19
Swallowing	Difficult	8
	Unable to swallow	18
Pupillary light reflexes	Decreased	22
	Absent	4
Anal reflexes	Reduced	26
Jaw and tail tone	Low	6
	Absent	20
Sensitivity to pricking with a needle	No reaction	26
Body temperature^a (reference range: 37.8 - 39.2°C)	Normal	15
	High	11
	Low	26
Heart Rate^b (reference range: 60 - 80/beats/minute)	Normal	4
	Bradycardia	18
	Tachycardia	4
Respiratory Rate^c (reference range: 10 - 30 breaths/minute)	High	26

a Body temperature: normal (mean: 38.5 ± 0.4°C ); high (mean: 39.6 ± 0.2°C); low (mean: 35.6 ± 0.3° C)
b Heart rate: normal (mean: 72 ± 3 beats/minute ); bradycardia (mean: 48 ± 4 beats/minute ); tachycardia (mean: 96 ± 6 beats/minute)
c Respiratory rate: high (mean 42 ± 4 breaths/minute)

ISSN: 2046-0481