by: Kristin Haas, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
The welcomed signs of spring – melting snow, longer days, return of the red-winged blackbirds, and those infamous muddy roads – should be triggers to all livestock owners to survey your grazing pastures.
This is something you may already do routinely, but if you haven’t in a while, we recommend picking a week this month and going on a pasture walk-about, keeping your eyes peeled for items that can threaten the health and safety of your livestock and poultry. Items that can cause lead poisoning in livestock and poultry are some of the deadliest hazards you can remove from grazing areas. Things discarded in rubbish piles or accidentally made accessible to livestock can constitute a significant animal health, food safety, and financial risk. The most common sources of on-farm lead include:
- Spent lead-acid car/boat/tractor batteries
- Paint tins and painted surfaces – machinery, auto bodies, sheds/barns
- Grease or oil filters
- Putty and caulking
- Linoleum
- Spent sump oil
Cattle and poultry are most prone to lead toxicity because of their inquisitive nature and indiscriminate eating habits, and cattle because of their attraction to the sweet taste of lead and lead salts. Cattle will readily lick and chew discarded lead-acid batteries, and if battery casings have lost integrity over time or batteries have been burned, lead is readily accessible to those probing tongues. Pre-weaned calves are even more vulnerable. While adult cattle absorb 1-2% of ingested lead, milk calves’ immature digestive systems are like sponges and can absorb up to 50% of ingested lead.
Poisoned animals develop neurologic and gastrointestinal illness and may even die from lead toxicosis. Elevated lead levels can persist in animals’ bodies for years and can be found in unsafe levels in affected animals’ milk and meat. Treatment for lead poisoning is expensive and often not successful. Some treatments available for use in companion animal species are not approved for use in food producing animals. In the absence of treatment, animals and the food products they produce could be quarantined for months or years due to lead residues - a significant financial hit for impacted farmers.
So, you may be asking yourself what you can do to remedy this issue. As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We urge you to pick a week right after the snow melts and the ground is bare, to take a walk-about around your livestock and poultry living areas to do the following:
- Look for rubbish piles or other debris areas that could contain the risky materials described above. This is especially important if you are surveying pastures that are new to you (rented, recently purchased, etc.) but it is also worth taking a fresh look at pastures you have used for years. Remember that over time, rubbish piles can become overgrown with brush and forgotten, so look closely.
- If possible, remove the risk. To safely dispose of batteries and other solid waste, visit Contact Your Waste District or Town | Department of Environmental Conservation to connect with your Solid Waste District or town. If you are not able to determine a method of disposal through municipal channels, contact the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Solid Waste Management program at 802-828-1138 for advisement.
- Batteries should ALWAYS be removed, but if removal of other hazards is not an option, fence off the risk. Consider fencing off outbuildings with lead paint, equipment storage areas containing risky materials, and “resting”/unused vehicles or farm machinery.
If you experience livestock illness or death and are concerned about lead toxicosis, consult your veterinarian for evaluation and diagnostic testing that can help clarify whether lead poisoning is the culprit. Watch a short video to review the clinical signs associated with lead poisoning.
For more information on this topic, contact the Animal Health office by email Agr.animalhealth@vermont.gov or by phone (802)828-2421.