Toxic quail

Quail are universally acknowledged to be yummy, but some Old World quail can also be toxic, depending on a variety of circumstances, including migratory route, etc. According to Susan Lumpkin of the National Zoo :

Quail using the eastern migratory flyway are toxic only during the southern, fall migration, while quail using the western flyway are toxic only during the northern, spring migration. There is also a strange patchy distribution of human poisonings, with cases reported from northern Algeria, southern France, mainland and island Greece, northeastern Turkey, and southwest Russia.

The medical term for the effects of eating toxic quail is coturnism. The illness sounds dreadful, with a list of symptoms that includes vomiting, respiratory distress, excruciating pain, and paralysis, but it is seldom fatal except to elderly people. . . .

The name coturnism wasn’t coined until this century, but people have known about quail poisoning for perhaps as long as 3,500 years. This estimate is based on a Biblical story of Israelites in the wilderness feasting on quail and quickly being struck down with a plague. Later, ancient Greek and Roman writers, described the syndrome as well. From then until fairly recently, it was generally believed that the birds’ toxicity derived from their eating poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) seeds during migration.

The hemlock theory has been disputed, based on modern research carried out by nutritional geographer Louis Grivetti, who found that hemlock seeds are fatal to Asiatic quail:

Grivetti notes that the quail might obtain coniines (the toxic compound in hemlock) from a plant other than hemlock. Or, Asiatic quail may be more sensitive to coniines than the European form, although the two species are very closely related.

Another possibility is " the seeds of a member of the mint family, Stachys annua. Russian scientists found these seeds in the digestive tracts of quail that caused coturnism and, just as important, this plant sets seed in the various parts of its range at the same time the quail are toxic."

More details at the link. Photo from Wikipedia.

Here's the relevant Biblical passage, from Numbers 11:31-34:

Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah,  because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

Quail are universally acknowledged to be yummy, but some Old World quail can also be toxic, depending on a variety of circumstances, including migratory route, etc. According to Susan Lumpkin of the National Zoo :

Quail using the eastern migratory flyway are toxic only during the southern, fall migration, while quail using the western flyway are toxic only during the northern, spring migration. There is also a strange patchy distribution of human poisonings, with cases reported from northern Algeria, southern France, mainland and island Greece, northeastern Turkey, and southwest Russia.

The medical term for the effects of eating toxic quail is coturnism. The illness sounds dreadful, with a list of symptoms that includes vomiting, respiratory distress, excruciating pain, and paralysis, but it is seldom fatal except to elderly people. . . .

The name coturnism wasn’t coined until this century, but people have known about quail poisoning for perhaps as long as 3,500 years. This estimate is based on a Biblical story of Israelites in the wilderness feasting on quail and quickly being struck down with a plague. Later, ancient Greek and Roman writers, described the syndrome as well. From then until fairly recently, it was generally believed that the birds’ toxicity derived from their eating poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) seeds during migration.

The hemlock theory has been disputed, based on modern research carried out by nutritional geographer Louis Grivetti, who found that hemlock seeds are fatal to Asiatic quail:

Grivetti notes that the quail might obtain coniines (the toxic compound in hemlock) from a plant other than hemlock. Or, Asiatic quail may be more sensitive to coniines than the European form, although the two species are very closely related.

Another possibility is " the seeds of a member of the mint family, Stachys annua. Russian scientists found these seeds in the digestive tracts of quail that caused coturnism and, just as important, this plant sets seed in the various parts of its range at the same time the quail are toxic."

More details at the link. Photo from Wikipedia.

Here's the relevant Biblical passage, from Numbers 11:31-34:

Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah,  because there they buried the people who had craved other food.