Australian sheep get high and die on toxic weed

When Australian farmer Tony Knight first saw a purple-flowering plant growing across the bushfire-scarred terrain where his sheep grazed, his first thought was that it looked like “good stock feed.” However, the “pleasant-looking plant” was far from the nutritious food his livestock needed after their paddocks were razed bare by the fires that swept through the northwest region of New South Wales state last year. Instead, the native weed known as the “Darling pea” contained a toxin that affected the sheep’s nervous systems, killing hundreds by triggering mental and physical deterioration. “To start with, they will do quite well when they first get on to it and their condition will pick up,” Knight said at his farm near the town of Coonabarabran. “But once it gets them addicted, it’s just a drug — it goes from becoming their best friend to their worst enemy,” he said...more