How Milk Killed Thousands of People in the US?
- bioworld090
- Jul 7, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 15, 2022
Milk is one of the most nutritious liquids in the world. Humans began to consume milk some 6000-10,000 years ago. According to USDA data, world milk consumption was approximately 190 million tonnes in 2020, making it one of the most consumed fluids in the world. However, there was a time when thousands of migrants who came to the Midwestern United States, especially in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio were killed due to the consumption of milk.
These incidents of death were reported in the 19th century. The cause of the death was "milk sickness". Also known as the "puking illness", "slows", "tremetol vomiting" and "trembles", it was found that it is a kind of poisoning caused in humans and animals due to the consumption of milk. But
how can milk cause poisoning in humans and animals?
Milk sickness was a result of poisoning caused by milk, but the poisoning was secondary and not primary.
According to Wikipedia, secondary poisoning, or relay toxicity, is the poisoning that results when one organism comes into contact with or ingests another organism that has poison in its system.
So, in this case, the milk of the cattle itself was not the cause of the sickness or poisoning. Instead, the poisoning properties in the animal's milk came from ingesting some toxic plants. So,
which plant was responsible for imparting the toxic properties to milk?
Source: Wikipedia
The plant white snakeroot (also known as richweed or white sanicle) was responsible for "milk sickness". Upon consumption, it made the milk, dairy products, or meat of cattle poisonous.
The white snakeroot, scientific name Ageratina altissima, is a herb in the family Asteraceae(commonly known as the daisy or sunflower family). It grows up to 1.5 metres tall and has small white-coloured flowers. It can grow in woods and thickets as well as in shady areas with open ground.
WHAT MAKES WHITE SNAKEROOT POISONOUS?
The toxic substance that makes white snakeroot is tremetol. Tremetol is not a single chemical substance, but it’s actually a mixture of a variety of ketones and alcohols.
Consumption of 0.5-1.5% of the animal’s body weight for 1-3 weeks causes toxicity.
Tremetol content is highest when white snakeroot is green. but a decrease of 80% in tremetol content is seen on drying and storing for 5 years. However, even after that it still retains its toxic properties and causes poisoning.
HISTORY, FINDINGS & THEORIES
Milk sickness was reported in the early 19th century when the people who migrated to the US and their animals started to die of unknown causes. The deaths occurred mainly in the Midwestern US where the plant grows.
The cases of milk sickness were most common in dry seasons when cattle moved from pasture towards woods for grazing. When people began to clear the woody areas. the cases of milk sickness were also reduced as white snakeroot was also cleared along with other plants.
It is stated in the book, The Kentucky Encyclopedia by John E. Kleber, that milk sickness was first described by Dr. Thomas Barbee in 1809.
The exact cause of the poisoning was unknown at the beginning. As a result, various theories were given to explain the cause of poisoning. Up to the mid-nineteenth
century, people thought that poisoning was caused by miasma(foul-smelling air produced from rotting organic matter that was believed to cause diseases), metallic poison or vegetable poison. They even associated it with a bacterial infection and had a name for the bacteria: Bacillus lactomorphus.
Image Source: drloihjournal.blogspot.com
By 1840, vegetable poisoning was mostly accepted. The exact plant that was causing the poisoning was unknown to people until Dr. Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby discovered that white snakeroot was the reason for milk sickness. Dr. Anna herself was told about the plant's toxic properties by an elderly Shawnee woman who she befriended. This led Dr. Anna to do some tests on cattle.
Among the people who died due to milk sickness was also Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. She died on October 5, 1818.
The last case of milk sickness in humans was reported in 1963 in two infants who got sick after consuming cow milk.
SYMPTOMS OF MILK SICKNESS
The most noticeable effect of consuming white snakeroot in animals is trembling. Other common symptoms include loss of appetite, listlessness, weakness, vague pains, muscle stiffness, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, severe constipation, bad breath, and coma.
Loss of appetite, nausea, weakness, abdominal pain, inflamed mucous membranes, abnormal blood acidity, and accumulation of ketone bodies are the symptoms in humans. In serious cases, death occurs.
Symptoms unique to horses are depression, bloody urine, and choking. Increased heart rate, jugular pulse and swelling around the thoracic inlet are also observed. Horses may also stand with their hind legs wide apart.
Signs unique to cattle and sheep include peculiar odours found in the breath and urine, breathing difficulties, and over-salivation.
Death usually occurs within two to ten days of symptom onset.
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