118 Bulletin No. 208. 



lamination in only a limited portion of the feed might account 

 for one or two sporadic cases within a large herd, possibly re- 

 sulting in negative feeding tests with the feeds under suspicion, 

 or the method of handling and transporting the feed en route to 

 the Experiment Station might involve exposure sufficient to 

 markedly alter the poisonous quality. To prevent undue ex- 

 posure, precautions were taken to shelter and protect from light 

 feeds sent to the Experiment Station for feeding tests. Small 

 samples for bacteriological examination were retained in sealed 

 jars at 43 to 48 F. and protected from light. Notwithstanding 

 negative feeding tests or the sporadic loss of only one or two 

 animals in a large herd, from a disease resembling forage poison- 

 ing, it is probable that a variety of feedstuff s have been con- 

 taminated in some manner with the etiologic factor. At any 

 rate different feeds have from time to time been regarded with 

 suspicion in connection with this disease on Kentucky farms. 



Ensilage Poisoning. 



Experimental feeding tests conducted by Pearson 1 of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, in 1900, demonstrated the poison- 

 ous quality of a corn ensilage being fed in connection with a 

 sporadic outbreak of forage poisoning. Stange and Buchanan 2 

 of the Iowa State College projected similar feeding tests with 

 an ensilage obtained from an outbreak in Central Iowa, with 

 positive results. More recently Rusk and Grindley 3 of the 

 University of Illinois demonstrated the presence of the etiologic 

 factor of this disease in ensilage by feeding experiments at 

 Ottawa, Illinois. Buckley, Mohler, Eichhorn, Marshall, Mus- 

 selman and many others, including a large number of veterinary 

 practitioners, have from time to time observed an inseparable 

 relation existing between forage poisoning and the feed, tho 

 it has not been possible to prove this contention in every in- 

 stance. On more than one occasion in Kentucky circumstantial 

 evidence has pointed to siloed feed as incorporating the etio- 

 logic factor of forage poisoning, and frequently in affected 



iJour. Com. Med. & Vet. Arch., Vol. XXI; Vol. XXII, p. 109 and 446. 



2 Mycologia, Vol. II, No. 3, May, 1910, p. 99. 



3 Report not published (1916.) 



