Table 3.

Summary of nitrate and nitrocompound toxicity.

Substrate	Source	Intoxication	Organisms involved	Transformation/metabolism
Nitrate	Feeds	See nitrite	Many groups	Reduced to nitrite
Nitrite	Produced from nitrates in feeds	Methemoglobinemia	Many groups	Further broken down into ammonium
3-Nitro-1-propanol	Astragulus and many other plant species: hydrolysis of nitroglycosides in feed	Inhibits succinate dehydrogenase	Denitrobacterium detoxificans, Coprococcus sp., Megasphaera elsdenii, Selenomonas ruminantium	Metabolized to aminopropanol in the rumen and 3-nitro-1-propionate in the liver
3-Nitro-1-propionate	Astragulus and many other plant species: hydrolysis of nitroglycosides in feed	Inhibits succinate dehydrogenase	Denitrobacterium detoxificans, Coprococcus sp., Megasphaera elsdenii, Selenomonas ruminantium	Metabolized to β-alanine in the rumen which is futher metabolized
Nitroethane/nitroethanol	Synthetic	Unknown (possible respiratory toxicosis)	Denitrobacterium detoxificans	Metabolized to ethylamine/possibly to ethanolamine