Reports of plant toxicoses in Australian native mammals have increased since 2011 when compared with historic reports.
The reason for this is unknown but may relate to increased surveillance and improved reporting and investigation. Investigating suspected plant toxicoses in free- ranging wildlife is challenging.
In contrast to domestic livestock, precise spatial and temporal details of the interaction between wildlife and potentially toxic plants are often not available. The availability and cost associated with identifying specific toxins in forage, intestinal contents and in various tissues including blood often precludes a definitive diagnosis, so circumstantial and associative links are used as presumptive evidence. In addition, many free-ranging wildlife species have developed mechanisms to cope with plant toxins, such as avoidance, dilution, degradation or detoxification (Fowler 1983). If defence mechanisms fail, because of a pre-existing illness or ecological disturbance that results in loss of preferred forage or overgrowth of toxic weeds, ingested toxins may result in morbidity or mortality (Fowler 1983; Woolford et al. 2014). This chapter focuses on advances in knowledge of toxicoses since the publication of the first edition of Medicine of Australian Mammals and readers should consult Vogelnest and Woods (2008) and Ladds (2009) for additional information. Jarolimek et al. (2023) provides a comprehensive review of inorganic contaminants in Australian marine mammals.Snake envenomation, stingray spine poisoning and tick toxicosis by Ixodes holocyclus are not included in this chapter.
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