Manning Landcare have had reports from local landholders of stock deaths due to the highly toxic weed, green cestrum.
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The weed is a liver toxin and can cause sudden death to animals including cattle, sheep, horse, pigs and poultry. It can also cause serious illness or death in humans.
“This time of year there’s not much green pick and animals are eating the green cestrum,” Manning Landcare’s Lyn Booth said.
Green cestrum is very common in gardens and along creeks and wet gullies in the Manning Valley.
Lyn Booth said the weed is easy to identify.
“Crush the leaves in your hand and the smell is terrible!”
The Department of Primary Industries website says that signs of poisoning in livestock include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, depression, disorientation, walking with a stagger, irritability, weakness, going off their feed, lying on the ground, and finally a period of coma or terminal convulsions.
For more information on green cestrum visit weeds.dpi.nsw.gov.au/Weeds/Details/65.