Cattle poisoning by a mixture of endosulfan, dieldrin, DDT and DDE

In late July of 1994 two 11-mo-old Holstein heifers were found dead inside a barn after a break-and-entry into it by several animals. The other animals showed no signs of sickness. The predominant postmortem findings were pulmonary edema and muscular hemorrhage. Chemical analysis found endosulfan, dieldrin, DDT and DDE in the rumen contents of both animals. The owner admitted that a very old bottle of pesticide had been knocked over and consumed by these animals; the lid consisted of plastic tape. The sale of DDT to the public was discontinued in the US on January 1, 1973, and the sale of dieldrin was halted in the US in 1987. This case demonstrates that poisoning by long obsolete farm chemicals still must be considered in differential diagnoses of acute deaths.