Poison plant killed 8 cows

FRIDAY, JAN. 20: Cattle that died at a Devonshire farm were killed by poisonous leaves, tests have revealed.

The eight cows died at Belhaven Farm after eating oleander leaves — which are highly toxic.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection said: “While oleander is a plant found commonly in Bermuda, it is highly toxic if ingested.”

She added that the cattle might have been fed the leaves by mistake by members of the public.

The spokeswoman said: “Ingestion of oleander clippings by large animals often results from well-meaning persons offering a treat of mixed foliage.

“As little as 10 to 20 leaves can be fatal to an average-sized cow. Also, larger cows will bully smaller cows away from the feed trough and the larger animals ingest more feedstuffs and that appears to have happened at Belhaven.

“The history, clinical signs, necropsy findings, findings on the farm and laboratory results are all consistent with a diagnosis of oleander toxicity.

“There is no evidence of negligence or malice in this case.”

The cows died suddenly over the course of two days last November, sparking a health enquiry and a quarantine at the farm.

All the affected animals were in the same pen and other cattle in another pen were unaffected.

The spokeswoman said: “No other illnesses or deaths occurred on this farm and no other farm was affected. As the deaths ceased just as quickly as they began, it became quite apparent that the causative agent was no longer active and the quarantine was lifted after approximately 10 days.”

Cattle across the island were checked after the Belhaven deaths and — in addition to the on-island investigation — samples were sent to the US for specialist testing.

Farmer: no surprise

Dairy farmer Harry Kromer, who runs Belhaven, said yesterday: “We never thought it was a disease and the findings are no surprise.

“We always thought it would be straightforward and this confirms what we suspected all along. How they got the oleander is one thing we will never know — we can speculate, but we’ll never know for sure.

Vet Dane Coombs, an internationally-recognised specialist in large animals, who was called in to help in the probe into the mystery deaths, said that oleander was “highly toxic” to animals and humans.

He added: “There is a lot of it in Bermuda, but this finding will give the public some peace of mind in terms of this incident.”

Dr Coombs added that animals normally avoided eating oleander because it had a very bitter taste – but that if it was mixed up with other foliage or wilted, they could eat it.

He said the toxins in oleander could affect the heart and nervous system and quickly kill.

Dr Coombs added: “Thankfully, it’s not a common cause of death in animals in Bermuda, even though there is a lot of oleander here.

“People should be aware that oleander can cause these kinds of problems — I have advised people to cut down oleander which was overhanging a horses’ paddock because I didn’t want leaves to fall and possibly be eaten.”