Plantas tóxicas para animais de produção na Região Sudoeste da Bahia

Abstract

The objective was to conduct an epidemiological survey of the toxic plants with livestock interest in the Southwest region of Bahia state, describe outbreaks of Intoxication by Pteridium arachnoideum and identify their geographical distribution in mesoregions. Properties of the countryside of 30 counties were visited at random. The questionnaire contained three forms: the 1st form with scientific and common names of 42 proven toxic species, the 2nd to report species not listed in the 1st form and the 3rd form to describe outbreaks mentioned by the interviewees. A picture book about toxic plants of northeastern Brazil was used to facilitate the identification of plants. Plant samples were properly collected, stored and forwarded for further botanic identification. On average, there were four interviews per county, totaling 124. P. arachnoideum caused the largest number of Intoxication and is dispersed across almost the entire study area. Other species most frequently mentioned were: Amorimia rigida, Ricinus communis and Froelichia humboldtiana. Intoxications were less frequent by: Brachiaria spp., Marsdenia spp., Manihot spp., Mimosa tenuiflora, Thiloa glaucocarpa, Enterolobium contortisiliquum and Coffea arabica bark. Plants mentioned as toxic, but without scientific evidence were Indeterminate plants of the families Fabaceae and Bignoniaceae, Capparis jacobinae, Imperata brasiliensis Trin., Cecropia hololeuca Mic. Senna and acuruensis. It was concluded that the intoxication by plants cause considerable losses in the region studied. Thus, becomes necessary to increase the number of investigations in this line and disseminate the results to enhance intoxications by plants as a differential diagnosis of animal diseases.