CBS News: GM grass linked to Texas cattle deaths

[ag_dude]

30. Death from Johnson grass toxicity is common when...

Last edited Thu Jun 28, 2012, 06:22 PM - Edit history (1)

...it has not been grazed down and a sudden freeze comes in.

BTW, it’s typically referred to as prussic acid in agricultural circles. Calling it cyanide gas is a media thing rooted purely in a lack of knowledge of the condition and the fact that it makes for a more shocking headline.

If you are looking for specific stats, you aren’t going to find them. Cattle are not people and there is no CDC keeping track of those sorts of deaths in high detail. We lost several cows to burr clover bloat this spring (the fields were exceptionally bare from the drought and the rains came at the perfect time for clover), none of which will show up in any statistical databases.

However, if you are actually interested in the subject, a simple Google search will pull up tons of information on prussic acid…

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/livestoc/v1150w.htm

http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/forages/publications/ay196.htm

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/livestk/01612.html

The type of ‘cyanide gas’ poisoning (again, called prussic acid poisoning by most ag scientists) that happened here is alarming in the agricultural community because Tifton 85 is not known to suffer from it. One of the source grasses from Africa is known to do it but actual Tifton 85 had not been until this very specific situation and Tifton 85 is about two decades old now.