New Study Links Sycamore Tree to Atypical Myopathy

Toxins from the seeds of the sycamore tree are the likely cause of atypical myopathy.
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Toxins from the seeds of the tree Acer pseudoplatanus are the likely cause of atypical myopathy (AM) in Europe, according to results from a new study published this month in the Equine Veterinary Journal.

The common name for this tree is sycamore in the United Kingdom, but it is also known as the sycamore maple in some other countries. There is further potential for confusion because a completely different tree, Platanus occidentalis, is known as the sycamore or American Sycamore in the United States. The new research follows hot on the heels of a U.S. study earlier this year that linked toxins from the box elder tree (Acer negundo) with seasonal pasture myopathy (SPM), the U.S. equivalent of AM.

Atypical myopathy is a highly fatal muscle disease in the U.K. and northern Europe. In ten years, approximately twenty European countries have reported the disease. Incidences tend to occur repeatedly in the autumn and in the spring following large autumnal outbreaks. Horses that develop AM are usually kept in sparse pastures with an accumulation of dead leaves, dead wood, and trees in or around the pasture and are often not fed any supplementary hay or feed. SPM is a very similar disorder, prevalent in midwestern United States and Eastern Canada that is now known to be caused by the ingestion of hypoglycin A, contained in seeds from the box elder tree.

The new European research was conducted by an international team led by Dominique Votion, DVM, PhD, of University of Liege in Belgium, and involved 17 horses from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, suffering from AM. The researchers identified high concentrations of a toxic metabolite of hypoglycin A in the serum of all the horses. The pastures of 12 of the horses were visited by experienced botanists and the Acer pseudoplatanus, the sycamore maple, was present in every case. This was the only tree common to all visited pastures

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