In the fall of 1992 a ranch in northeastern Oregon suffered a plague of deformed calves.
As the Journal of Range Management noted, in a herd of 131 cows, 67 calves — 51 percent of those born — suffered from "crooked calf disease." Some had malformed front legs, necks or spines. A few had cleft palates.
Calves with cleft palates are in a horrible fix. When they try to feed, milk seeps through holes in their palates and into their lungs, where it causes pneumonia. Those with twisted spines or distorted legs are weak and starve or fall easy prey to predators. So calves with these deformations must be destroyed.
One of the authors of the Journal report, Lynn F. James, noted that a similar plague broke out in western Washington state in 1997. In one county, 12,400 cows gave birth to more than 4,000 crooked calves, he said.
"If you calculate the value of those, that comes out to be about $1.75 million," James added.
But the cost goes far beyond the immediate value of the lost livestock. It hits the whole community, from ranchers to car dealers.
"You can't buy a truck with a dead calf," he added.
The culprit is a common noxious weed, a form of lupine that causes birth defects when eaten by cows during a certain stage of pregnancy.
On Friday, officials broke ground for a revamped research laboratory at Utah State University, which will continue to work toward eradicating these plagues and also to help find cures for human ailments.
The new $7.5 million Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory is a dream come true for James, the lab's 77-year-old research director. A 45-year veteran of the lab's earlier incarnations, he is thrilled about the new facility.
It is the world's only research facility devoted exclusively to investigating pasture and rangeland plants that are poisonous to livestock and wildlife. Although based on the USU campus, and with a staff boasting many adjunct or associate professors, the lab is under the Agriculture Research Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Marcia Wood of the USDA's office in Washington said in a note to the Deseret News that the department has conducted research on poisonous plants since 1905. In 1954, the lab was established on the USU campus, and its scientists became renowned for their work on toxic plants like locoweed, lupine and Veratrum.
Specialists on the staff include experts in chemistry, veterinary toxicology, veterinary pathology and rangeland science.
In a telephone interview, James said he is grateful for the efforts of Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah; the Utah Farm Bureau; the Utah Cattlemen's Association and the Utah Wool Growers for supporting the upgrade.
Researchers were crowded in the old laboratory. "We built a small metal building and since then we've added onto it four times," James said.
At 7,500 square feet, including labs, offices and storage, it was inadequate.
The two-story, 26,700-square-foot structure will provide much more office and lab space for scientists and technicians. Construction should be finished by 2004 and the old buildings will be demolished.
Lupine isn't the only vegetable villain that the researchers have been tracking. Another is false hellbore, whose scientific name is Veratrum californicum.
According to the Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Utah, false hellbore is a native herb that grows in moist meadows and open slopes, from about 5,900 feet to 10,000 feet elevation. It looks much like skunk cabbage, and sometimes sheep will graze on it.
If a ewe eats it at one particular point — in the 14th day of gestation — lambs will be terribly deformed.
They are born looking like the cyclops of ancient Greek legend. They might have one eye in the middle of the face, with a tiny proboscis above the eye. Or they might have two eyes in the same central eye socket.
"The lambs can't breathe; they're not viable," he said.
Worse, if the ewe is carrying a single malformed lamb, "birth does not take place, but the lamb will live inside the uterus." (If the ewe carries twins, one normal and one deformed, birth does happen.)
Soon, if the misshapen lamb is not born, it gets larger and larger, and its growth destroys the ewe. The largest such lamb he has seen taken from a ewe was 32 pounds, and it had wool an inch long.
The toxin is an alkaloid. If a researcher feeds the pure toxin to pregnant ewes, "you get the malformation," James said.
"We devised a management plan whereby they can graze in those areas safely and not have the malformation." The plan involves a schedule in which the ewes are kept out of areas with false hellbore during the period of their pregnancy when the toxin can cause the disorder.
E-MAIL: bau@desnews.com