"Cows died from eating toxic sweet potatoes, UW vets say":

[elocs]

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/state-and-regional/article_9e78720c-2b1c-11e0-b464-001cc4c03286.html

Hardly a glamorous explanation for those who live for conspiracies.

It wasn't pneumonia that killed 200 cows in Portage County earlier this month. It was toxic sweet potatoes.

The steers who died Jan. 14 at a feedlot were initiallly thought to have died from pneumonia, but the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in Madison did more testing and discovered the cows had eaten moldy sweet potato waste that contained a toxin.

The UW-Madison news bureau reported that tests on feed samples revealed the presence of ipomeanol, a mycotoxin found in moldy sweet potatoes, Peter Vanderloo, associate director of the lab, said in a news release. "Based on history, clinical signs, changes in tissue and test results from our lab and a referral laboratory, it is likely that a mycotoxin from moldy sweet potato was a major factor in the disease and deaths of these steers."

Sweet potato waste was a major component of the animals' diet at the time of the Jan. 14 incident, Vanderloo said.

[valerief]

1. Sweet potato waste? Sweet potatoes don't poop. nt

[Jamastiene]

4. Lol! When I was a kid, I thought that stuff in sweet potato

skins (after baking) WAS poop. It took me ages to get over the way it looked and eat the sweet potatoes.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. I yam relieved, let me tell ya.

[elocs]

3. As Popeye said:

But is it yams or spinach? :shrug: