When a herd of cattle suddenly died in Central Texas investigators were dispatched to the scene to investigate and now preliminary test results are blaming the animals deaths on the genetically modified grass the cows were consuming.
The cows which were grazing on an 80-acre patch owned by Jerry Abel in Elgin, Texas died several weeks ago.
Abel tells CBS Station KEYE that the grass should have been perfect since it had “a lot of leaf, it’s good grass, tested high for protein – it should have been perfect.”
The grass was a form of Bermuda known as Tifton 85 and it has been around for 15 years on the Abel farm. Unfortunately something went horribly wrong several weeks ago and according to Abel:
“When our trainer first heard the bellowing, he thought our pregnant heifer may be having a calf or something. But when he got down here, virtually all of the steers and heifers were on the ground. Some were already dead, and the others were already in convulsions.”
It turns out that the grass for some unknown reason began producing cyanide gas which is poisonous to cattle.
Other farms quickly began testing their fields and while no other cattle deaths have been reported at least several farmers found toxic cyanide in their Tifton 85 grass.
According to the Examiner the grass which has suffered from drought conditions for the last several years is now being dissected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see if some type of strange mutation may have occurred.
Update : The original report we received stated that the grass was a GMO version of Tifton 85. In fact it was a hybridized version of the product. A change in the original report was listed months after the original report surfaced via several mainstream publications. Please note the differences between hybridized grass and GMO grass.