Pathology
Intoxication with swainsonine has several kinds of effect.
Livestock that graze for several weeks on locoweed (and little else) develop a lysosomal storage disease similar to genetic mannosidosis. Swainsonine inhibits a lysosomal enzyme, alpha-mannosidase. This results in abnormal accumulation of the molecules normally processed by the enzyme, and this accumulation leads to vacuolation of most tissues. Vacuolation is most obvious in neurons and epithelial cells. The vacuolation resolves shortly after poisoning is discontinued, but if the vacuolation is so severe that it destroys cells, it may result in some neurologic damage that is irreversible and permanent. The damage is highly varied.
In cattle at high altitude, complications of locoism can include congestive heart failure.
In cattle, sheep, and goats, locoweed poisoning causes reproductive losses.
Read more about this topic: Locoweed
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—Bronislaw Geremek (b. 1932)