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as someone who grew up on a farm, we knew that driving cows or sheep (4 stomached ruminants) onto a hot alfalfa field can kill them from cyanide poisoning (used
by paulus99 14y ago
as someone who grew up on a farm, we knew that driving cows or sheep (4 stomached ruminants) onto a hot alfalfa field can kill them from cyanide poisoning (used to call it prussic acid poisoning in the old days), so this is nothing new.
Just scaremongering media
- ams6110 14y agoInteresting... does the heat increase the cyanide production? It's been quite hot in texas lately.
- ghshephard 14y agoThat's interesting - Turns out there are a lot of grasses/clovers that can cause cyanide poisoning: (See Table 1-1, second page) http://www.ivis.org/special_books/knight/chap1/ivis.pdf http://www.ivis.org/special_books/knight/chap1/ivis.pdf "Plants Containing Cyanogenic Glycosides Cyanogenic glycosides are substances present in many plants that can produce highly toxic hydrogen cyanide (HCN) or prussic acid. Specific plant enzymes released when plant cells are damaged when chewed, crushed, wilted, or frozen, hydrolyze the glycosides to cyanide. At least 2000 plant species are known to contain cyanogenic glycosides with the potential to produce HCN poisoning [1-6]."
- protomyth 14y agoSome more science (guess CBS News skipped this) http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/210800.htm http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/210...