Coturnism is an illness featuring muscle tenderness and rhabdomyolysis

Rhabdomyolysis

Rhabdomyolysis is a condition in which damaged skeletal muscle tissue breaks down rapidly. Breakdown products of damaged muscle cells are released into the bloodstream; some of these, such as the protein myoglobin, are harmful to the kidneys and may lead to kidney failure...

 (muscle cell breakdown) after consuming quail

Quail

Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are found in the family Phasianidae, while New World quail are found in the family Odontophoridae...

 (Coturnix

Coturnix

Coturnix is a genus of Old World quail in Phasianidae.- Species list :*Blue Quail, Coturnix adansonii*King Quail, Coturnix chinensis*Rain Quail, Coturnix coromandelica*Harlequin Quail, Coturnix delegorguei*Common Quail, Coturnix coturnix...

 coturnix, from which the name derives). The condition was certainly known by the 4th century BC to ancient Greek and subsequently Roman naturalists, physicians and theologians. The Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 (Numbers 11:31-34) mentions an incident where the Israelites became ill after having consumed large amounts of quail. Among the early writers describing quail poisoning or discusing the toxic attributes of quail are Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

 (On Plants 820:6-7), Philo

Philo

Philo , known also as Philo of Alexandria , Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew, was a Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher born in Alexandria....

 (Geoponics: 14: 24), Lucretius

Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is an epic philosophical poem laying out the beliefs of Epicureanism, De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe".Virtually no details have come down concerning...

 (On the Nature of Things: 4: 639-640), Philo (The Special Laws: 4: 120-131), Galen

Galen

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

 (De Temperamentis: 3:4) and Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....

 (Outlines of Pyrrhonism: 1: 57). Central to these ancient accounts is the thesis that quail became toxic to humans after consuming seeds from either hemlock

Conium

Conium is a genus of two species of highly poisonous perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to Europe and the Mediterranean region as Conium maculatum, and to southern Africa as Conium chaerophylloides....

 (Conium maculatum) or henbane

Henbane

Henbane , also known as stinking nightshade or black henbane, is a plant of the family Solanaceae that originated in Eurasia, though it is now globally distributed.-Toxicity and historical usage:...

 (Hyoscyamus niger)".

Migration routes and season may affect quail risk. Quail are never poisonous outside the migration season nor are the vast majority poisonous while migrating. European Common Quail migrate along three different flyways each with different poisoning characteristics, at least in 20th century records. The western flyway across Algeria to France is associated with poisonings only on the spring migration and not on the autumn return. The eastern flyway, which funnels down the Nile Valley is the reverse. Poisonings were only reported in the Autumn migration before the quail had crossed the Mediterranean. The central flyway across Italy had no associated poisonings.

From case histories it is known that the toxin is stable as 4 month old pickled quail have been poisonous. Humans vary in their susceptibility, only one in four people who consumed quail soup fell ill and the toxin is in the fat as potatoes fried in quail fat proved poisonous.

Migrating quail used to be caught and eaten in prodigious numbers (150,000 quail exported from Capri in 1850) but modern farming and droughts in the Sahel have led to a vast reduction in the size of the migrations. Conservation efforts and the availability of farmed quail have also reduced the consumption of these wild birds. Coturnism may well disappear before it is understood.

It has been suggested that Galeopsis ladanum seeds are not responsible.

Coniine

Coniine

Coniine is a poisonous alkaloid found in poison hemlock and the yellow pitcher plant, and contributes to hemlock's fetid smell. It is a neurotoxin which disrupts the peripheral nervous system. It is toxic to humans and all classes of livestock; less than 0.2g is fatal to humans, with death caused...

 from hemlock consumed by quail has been suggested as the cause. Hellebore

Hellebore

Commonly known as hellebores, members of the genus Helleborus comprise approximately 20 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae...

has also been suggested as the source of the toxin.