Stocker Cattle Forum: History Of Bloat
Cattlenetwork.com
Bloat is a disease that has been described in agricultural writings since at least A.D. 60. Few livestock diseases have such a long and colorful history. Even the names for bloat have changed considerably over the years.
English journals of the 18th and 19th centuries describe the disease using various terms: hoove, hoven, tympany, and blown. The French word “meteorisation,” meaning the process of ballooning, is still used to describe bloat.
In past centuries, a bellyful of gas was attributed to a poison, to excessive gas production, or to blockage caused by the excessive consumption of dense feed. These and other explanations were the objects of experimental research in several countries from the 1940s to the 1960s.
