A bit of ear goop can reveal if sheep are eating dangerously poisonous plants.
Earwax from sheep that have eaten death camas contains the plants’ toxins within a few days following the noxious meal, researchers report in the December 2024 Toxicon. The findings add to a growing list of medical insights researchers can glean from swabbing some wax (SN: 2/24/14).
While grazing in pastureland, livestock like cattle and sheep can die from eating poisonous plants. Determining the culprit is a big job, says Stephen Lee, an analytical chemist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Poisonous Plant Research Lab in Logan, Utah. Lab workers might visit the pasture to test
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