A series of cow deaths that caused a quarantine at a Devonshire farm were caused by oleander poisoning, according to veterinarian Dr Dane Coombs.Belhaven farm was closed off in November after farmer Harry Kromer found eight young cows dead over the course of three days. All of the animals resided in a single pen, and animals residing in a second pen were unaffected.A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection said that the results of necropsies and lab tests all pointed to oleander toxicity.“There is no evidence of negligence or malice in this case,” the spokeswoman said. “While oleander is a plant found commonly in Bermuda, it is highly toxic if ingested.“Ingestion of oleander clippings or trimming by large animals often results from well-meaning persons offering a ‘treat’ of mixed foliage, and as little as ten to 20 leaves can be fatal to an average sized cow.“Also, larger cows will bully smaller cows away from the feed trough and the larger animals ingest more feed stuffs, and that appears to have happened at Belhaven.”Ingestion of the plant can lead to nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, irregular heart activity and sudden death.A single leaf if consumed contains enough toxin to kill a child, but very few human deaths have been attributed to the plant.The sudden cow deaths sparked a ten-day quarantine and put the Island’s farmers on alert.