Title: Plants of Texas Rangelands » Honey mesquite
Headings: Honey mesquite
Honey mesquite
Description
Habitat
Toxic Agent
Signs of Livestock Ingestion
Management Strategies
Images

Content: It is found from California to Kansas, Texas and Mexico. Toxic Agent
Mesquite beans primarily affect cattle, although goats have also been affected. Sheep are reportedly resistant. Horses that eat the beans may be susceptible to impaction colic. In some ways, the syndrome produced by a diet of mesquite beans is best considered a nutritional problem. Mesquite beans have a high sugar content that, together with inadequacy in other dietary factors, alters rumen microflora, inhibits cellulose digestion and contributes to rumen stasis and impaction. B-vitamin synthesis is inhibited. Ketosis and starvation follow in severe cases. Signs of Livestock Ingestion
The signs of the disease - jaw and tongue trouble - develop gradually, usually after cattle have been eating beans for 2 or more months. Animals may lose 50 percent of their weight.