Under the latest years, slugs have been recognised as a pest not only in gardens but also in pasture-land and meadows for roughage production. Especially in the western parts of Norway, the meadows has been invaded by slugs to a extent that has resulted i n rejection of feed lots. It has also been suspect of relations between animal health problems and silage contaminated with slugs, and questions concerning the risks for botulism and other animal diseases connected to slugs mixed in the forage has been raised. The same problems are currently faced in Sweden (C. Hultén, personal communication). Unfortunately, to our knowledge, no scientific reports on this topic are available and studies are thus requested from farmers, veterinarians, agricultural advisers and authorities. The principal objective of this study is thus to investigate if occurrence of slugs in silage may influence the hygienic feed quality negatively and if the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria as Clostridium botulinum and Listeria or moulds may be increased in such feed.
Publications
Gismervik, K., Randby, Å. T., Rørvik, L. M., Bruheim, T., Andersen, A., Hernandez, M., & Skaar, I. (2015). Effect of invasive slug populations (Arion vulgaris) on grass silage. II: Microbiological quality and feed safety. Animal Feed Science and Technology, 199, 20–28.
Time frame: 2010–2016