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05/01/2003
Cotton, Covering and Birthing Problems
Apropos of this week’s 129th Run for the Roses at Churchill
Downs, the TV program Sunday Morning had a piece by Bill
Geist on last year’s Derby winner, War Emblem. According to
Geist, his owners have a problem – War Emblem hasn’t
expressed any interest in the opposite sex. The current owners, a
Japanese syndicate, paid some $17-18 million for War Emblem,
hoping to recoup that and more through stud fees. According to
an article in the May 2003 issue of National Geographic, stud
fees can range into the hundreds of thousand of dollars a shot for
the services of equine superstars such as War Emblem. One
horse, which goes by the name of Storm Cat, reportedly
commands a fee of half a million dollars per dalliance! With so
much at stake, a libido deficiency is a financial disaster.
The reason for War Emblem’s reluctance to perform as expected
in this area is unknown. Could it be that some sort of biological
agent has affected him? We humans and our environment have
certainly been under attack by many of Nature’s forms of
bioterrorism: the West Nile virus, the Asian long-horned beetle,
the fire ant, the gypsy moth, Lyme disease, AIDS, various drug-
resistant bacteria or viruses and now SARS. These pose severe
challenges to our health, our environment and our economy.
Aside from War Emblem’s libido, Kentucky’s horse country has
its own biological problem that threatens its economic health.
But first, it’s heartening and instructive to look at one bioterrorist
that’s on the run – the boll weevil. This bug has cost the cotton
industry in the neighborhood of $14-15 billion over the past
century or so. An article, “Weevil Wars” by Dan Hogan in the
Spring 2003 edition of the American Chemical Society’s
publication Chemistry, details the story of the fight against this
costly pest. The weevil was one of the earliest illegal immigrants
from Mexico, crossing the border into the U.S. in 1892.
With each female laying a couple hundred eggs, and only a
three-week reproductive cycle, the weevil marched inexorably up
and across cotton country to Virginia and out to California. The
result was devastating, with thousands of farmers forced from
their farms. Some switched to peanut farming, a wise choice in
that not only was the peanut unaffected by the weevil but it also
replenished soil stripped of nutrients by the cotton farming. (I
once attended a Metropolitan Opera performance and sat directly
under our best-known peanut farmer, one Jimmy Carter.)
Initially, the weevils were simply hand picked off the plants and
cotton stalks were destroyed before winter set in. A chemical
attack was mounted using arsenic compounds but this was quite
costly. During World War II, new organic pesticides were
developed, including DDT, which proved to be an environmental
disaster. Other less damaging organic phosphate pesticides were
developed in Germany. It wasn’t until 1959 that James Brazzel,
who grew up on a cotton farm, and Dale Newsom of Louisiana
State University figured out that the weevil survived through the
winter by entering a state of hibernation called diapause.
By applying the pesticides before the weevil entered that state of
diapause, they could reduce the number of weevils appearing the
next spring by 90 percent, a big step forward. Another big
advance was the synthesis of the weevil pheromone, the
chemical that the beetles use to find mates and to tell other
beetles where the cotton is. (The pheromone is spread through
the weevil’s excrement, known as “frass”.) Baiting traps with
the pheromones, combined with the timely application of
chemical pesticides, Malathion in particular, brought the critters
under better control.
Other anti-weevil measures include a form of leaf blower to
generate a 150 mile an hour wind to blow weevils into a net to
catch them. Natural predators have also been inserted into the
fight. These include wasps from Mexico and nematodes that eat
the weevil larvae in the ground. Small farmers might use less
expensive garlic oil-fish emulsion mixtures instead of expensive
chemical pesticides. The weevil was also found to like cotton
because of its sugar content. Genetic engineering has produced
cotton that’s not as “sweet” and the weevils go elsewhere.
With the weevil on the run, a national weevil eradication
program began in 1973. Today, some 95 percent of American
cotton crops are weevil-free. A lofty goal is to have the whole
country free of weevils by 2006. The effort hasn’t been cheap.
A state of Tennessee Web site notes the cost of its weevil effort
in 2001 as being $32 million. If the 2006 goal is met, we’ll
really have to enforce a legal-entry-only plan from Mexico!
Back to Kentucky, the Geographic article I mentioned is titled
“High Stakes in the Bluegrass” by Shane DuBow. I found
myself to be quite na ve about the breeding process and the
subsequent problems in carrying the foal to a successful birth. I
had this picture of Seabiscuit retiring to pasture, roaming the
fields with an occasional dalliance with a mare allowed into the
field for the rendezvous. Wrong! The typical pairing of the two
horses is much more programmed, takes place in a breeding shed
and requires a so-called “teaser horse” to prepare the way.
In order to determine whether the mare is in a receptive state, the
male teaser horse is brought in to make advances to the mare,
which, if so disposed, shows her willing state of mind and body
by urinating. In case the teaser decides to follow through himself
on the mare’s willing state, he is outfitted in attire that prevents
any inadvertent beating of the scheduled, expensive sire to the
punch. After leading out the frustrated teaser, the real McCoy is
brought in to consummate the relationship, with handlers
standing by to assist if needed.
In the spring of 2001, with the resultant foals about to be born, a
very distressing thing began to happen. Without going into the
gory details, the births of hundreds of foals were complicated to
the extent that, while the Derby was being run, truckloads of
dead foals were being taken to the Lexington equine autopsy lab.
Mare reproductive loss syndrome (MRLS) was the term given to
the epidemic of lost foals. Last year, MRLS returned again.
Some 40,000 jobs are associated with the horses in Kentucky and
10,000 foals each year are at stake. The loss of 30 percent of this
number of foals is an economic disaster.
Horses, unlike the boll weevil with it 3-week cycle, have a
gestation period of 11months. The cause of this sudden epidemic
of MRLS, which reappeared in 2002, was unknown. A
University of Kentucky Web site, in an article by Jimmy C.
Henning, cites possible factors such as toxins in tall fescue grass
caused by a fungus, white clover (contains cyanide-containing
sugars), other toxins produced by fungi present in soil, mineral
imbalance in the pasture due to excessive fertilization, poison
hemlock and the weather. While the weather and the toxins in
tall fescue remain under study, the others have been cleared of
any guilt in causing MRLS.
After considerable effort, the main culprit has been identified –
the eastern tent caterpillar. I know from experience traveling in
Pennsylvania that caterpillar nests seem to come and go in
waves; some years the trees are covered with them. The actual
agent in the caterpillars that causes the MRLS has not yet been
identified, but when the pregnant mares ingest the caterpillars,
MRLS can result. One of the favorite haunts of the eastern tent
caterpillar is the wild cherry tree. The response to this finding on
some of the horse farms is an all-out chopping down of these
trees. Other measures include rounds of spraying and making
sure the grasses are free of the fungi-induced toxins, which may
interact with whatever the toxin is in the caterpillars to increase
the possibility of MRLS.
It’s not easy to raise a thoroughbred racehorse. What about War
Emblem? The veterinarian interviewed by Bill Geist seemed to
think that perhaps the horse feels the pressure and stress being
experienced by the handlers in the shed. On the other hand, War
Emblem might just be choosy and is waiting for the right gal to
come along. If you’re wondering why the breeders don’t just
resort to artificial insemination, a horse that runs in the Derby
must have been conceived by “natural cover”. “Natural cover”,
as I understand it, is simply another term for sex.
NOTE ADDED IN PROOF: As I was about to post this column,
I went online to see if there were any updates on War Emblem.
On one Buzz Daly’s Web site, I found some encouraging news.
Although War Emblem’s libido is still not up to snuff and the
Japanese syndicate is negotiating with its insurers to cover some
of its losses, War Emblem has “covered” 6 mares since February.
He’s booked for 200 more mares this year! They’re hoping that
by housing him in sight of newly arrived mares and other
stallions at work, he’ll be inspired to fulfill his bookings.
Allen F. Bortrum
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