Grazing Mares on Pasture with Sycamore Maples: A Potential Threat to Suckling Foals and Food Safety through Milk Contamination.

Equine atypical myopathy (AM) is seasonal intoxication resulting from the ingestion of seeds and seedlings of the sycamore maple () that contain toxins, among them, hypoglycin A (HGA). Literature mentions several cases of AM among gravid mares and in unweaned foals. The objective of this study was to determine whether HGA and/or its metabolite are present in milk from grazing mares exposed to sycamore maple trees as confirmed by detection of HGA and its metabolite in their blood.

A panel of biological tests reveals developmental effects of pharmaceutical pollutants on late stage zebrafish embryos.

Standard toxicological assays using the zebrafish model system evaluate lethality and teratogenicity upon exposure during the first 2 days after fertilization. We tested the biological effects of several widely used drugs on zebrafish by acute treatment for 24 h starting at late embryonic stages, between 48 and 72 h post-fertilization. For 4 out of 6 compounds, we observed a higher sensitivity of late stage zebrafish embryos for general toxicity (lethality) compared to younger embryos.