Little evidence that Beach Pea (<i>Lathyrus japonicus</i>) toxins cause gait abnormalities in Sable Island Feral Horse (<i>Equus ferus caballus</i>)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Lathyrus is a leguminous plant genus notable for its synthesis of lathyrogens, a group of nonprotein amino acids. Lathyrogens can have a range of toxic effects on mammals when consumed in large quantities, but research on lathyrogens has occurred primarily in an agricultural context and on the syndromes (osteo-, angio-, and neuro-lathyrism) that Lathyrus consumption causes in humans and livestock. We know relatively little about whether the lathyrogens in uncultivated Lathyrus species are more broadly consequential to the ecology of natural ecosystems. For example, the unmanaged Feral Horse (Equus ferus caballus) population inhabiting Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada relies on forage from coastal maritime plant communities, including Beach Pea (Lathyrus japonicus). Horses have a strong sensitivity to lathyrogens compared with many other mammals, and symptoms of lathyrism (gait abnormalities, hernias, hoof malformation) are sometimes observed in Sable Island horses. However, it is unclear whether Beach Pea on Sable Island produces lathyrogens at sufficient concentrations to cause disease. Using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS), we tested immature, mature, and senescent Sable Island Beach Pea samples for two of the most common lathyrogens: L-β-N-oxalyl-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (β-L-ODAP) and β-aminopropionitrile (BAPN). We detected only trace amounts of β-L-ODAP and no BAPN, causing us to conclude that lathyrogens are unlikely to be the cause of the physical abnormalities observed in Sable Island horses. These results from an iconic Canadian ecosystem provide useful toxicological data for a common coastal maritime plant.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".