Feed suspected to be poisoned; cause for deaths to be known after receiving lab report

Hunsur: Four cows died after allegedly consuming cattle feed at Krishnapura village in the taluk yesterday. It is suspected that feed was poisoned leading to the death of the cows.

The four cows, one of them pregnant, worth about Rs. 3 lakh, belonged to Jayakrishna of the village and were healthy.

It is learnt that Jayakrishna, on Sunday, brought the feed from HSR Ganesh Gold Company Agency at Yachegowdanahalli village in Yelwal hobli and yesterday at about 6 am, gave the feed to a cow. But the cow died within a few minutes of consuming the feed. Assuming that the cow had died of other issues, Jayakrishna buried the cow.

Later, he fed the three cows with the same feed and the three cows also died within minutes of consuming the feed. Jayakrishna, who came to the conclusion that cows died due to the cattle feed, informed the same to Gawadagere Veterinarian Dr. Rajashekarappa, who along with Assistant Veterinarian Dr. Shashidhar, reached the spot and conducted post-mortem.

As it came to be known that the cows died after consuming poisonous feed, Dr. Rajashekharappa collected samples from the dead cows and cattle feed and sent them to a lab.

“The owner of the cows said that the cows died after consuming the feed and also informed that the people in the shop from where the cattle feed was bought had poisoned the feed. Post-mortem revealed that the cows may have died after consuming poisonous feed. Hence samples from the dead cows were collected and sent to the lab for tests. The exact cause for the deaths would be known only after receiving the report. Also, samples of the feed was collected and sent to the lab to ascertain if the feed is fit for cows to consume,” said Dr. Rajashekharappa.

Village leaders K.S. Annaiah Nayak, Nagegowda, Mallesh, K.C. Nataraj, Shivanna, Raju, Krishnachari, K.S. Somashekar and others were present.