GM grass linked to Texas cattle deaths

Except it isn't really GM. It's a hybrid so it was created by only traditional plant crossing techniques. It is, however, a strange and alarming turn of events. Wonder which of our food crops could suddenly turn lethal without warning?
 
Almost makes that really crappy movie, The Happening, plausible. Even so, that movie still sucks.
 
After an investigation by Texas’s state forage extension specialist, Larry Redmon, it was determined the cattle died of Prussic Acid Poisoning possibly triggered by the grass being under drought conditions, the field was fertilized, then a growth bloom occurred after a rain. The cattle were turned into a fresh pasture hungry and thirsty and who then promptly over ate on the fresh growth of green lush grass This is the first case of Prussic Acid Poising observed from cattle grazing on Tifton-85.

In the plant these compounds are in the form of cyanogenic glucosides. It is not until the plants are consumed and the glucoside bonds are broken down in the rumen (cow’s stomach) by enzymes that the cyanide component is released and absorbed into the animal’s bloodstream. It then blocks transfer of oxygen as oxygen has a high affinity for nitrogen containing compounds like cyanide (HCN) over hemoglobin. Essentially these animals suffocated to death.

stargrass, which was crossed with bermuda grass to develop Tifton 85 has tendencies to develop prussic acid in drought stressed environmental situations. cyanogenic glucosides commonly form in sorghums, sudangrass, sorghum-sudan hybrids, johnsongrass under drought conditions and in wilted wild cherry leaves. Prussic Acid Poisining doesn't occur in monogastric (one stomach) animals like horses, dogs, cats, etc. only in ruminants such as cattle, sheep and goats.

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/livestoc/v1150w.htm
http://pearlsnapsponderings.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/forage-facts-prussic-acid-poisoning/
 
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