EFFECTS OF POISONOUS PLANTS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES FOR THE ANIMAL POISONING IN GRASSLANDS

Abstract

Grasslands covering an area of 14.6 million ha in our country are among our most important natural resources. These areas are the natural resources for the cheapest providing of the roughages needed by animals. However, due to grazing without any rules of management performed in our country for many years, vegetation of our grasslands are still far from climax, and they are consisting of plants that the animals do not want to consume, have difficulty in eating and some have toxic effects on animals. In these areas, animals poisoned by plants cause serious economic losses. While losses in animals such as death, weight loss, abortion, decreased reproductive efficiency, birth defect, decreased productivity are described as direct losses, feed losses arising from additional feed supply, treatment costs, regulation of management and efforts to reduce animal poisoning by plants are referred to as indirect losses. To minimize the negative effects of poisonous plants in pastures, it is necessary to know the reasons for the spread of poisonous plants in grassland, their poison levels and conditions under which they affect livestock. By using these knowledges, management strategies should be developed to reduce poisoning effects, and methods of protection should be developed by identifying poisonous plants. In this literature study, the losses and protection methods from poisonous plants on grasslands are discussed.