The affliction is caused by toxic products in mouldy grain. Symptoms include skin inflammation, diarrhoea and vomiting, haemorrhaging, leukopenia (depressed white blood cell count), respiratory failure, and in severe cases death.
Trichothecenes, produced by Fusarium and other fungi, have been identified as the toxic agent in cases of fatal toxicosis -- alimentary toxic aleukia -- associated with the consumption of mouldy grain by both animals and humans in the USA, Japan, the former Soviet Union and elsewhere.