| dc.description.abstract | This article report on an outbreak of acute livestock
poisoning by bore hole water that occurred at Kargi in
Marsabit District, Kenya in 2000. The borehole had
been out of use for 3 years and after its was rehabi Iitation,
7,000 died within a day after drinking the water.
The most affected were shoats, cattle, camels and
dogs with moralities of up to 90%. Donkeys and humans
were only mildly affected with no deaths reported.
Clinical signs occurred within Ihr after drinking
the water. Initially the animals displayed increased
frequency of urination followed by symptoms of respiratory
insufficiency comprising of dyspnea, cyanosis,
rapid and weak pulse and general weakness. The
signs progressed into methaemoglobinuria, severe pain,
trembling, convulsions, collapse, coma and death within
hours. Rapid decomposition, brown discolouration of
mucous membranes, gastrointestinal tract corrosion
and cooked appearance of visceral organs were observed
at postmortem. Water samples were corrected
from the borehole and neighbouring wells contained
arsenic (0.2-66.8ppb), selenium (1.1-4.4ppb), lead
(0.01-0.02 ppm) and nitrates (450-950 ppm) and other
contaminants. The deaths were probably due to acute
nitrate poisoning. | en |
