Onion toxicity in farmed animals

Abstract

extract

Feeding cull onions (A llium cepa) to livestock is practised in onion growing regions around the world. While sheep are able to tolerate onions in their diet, cattle are susceptible to toxicity. Onion poisoning has recently been reported in dairy cows in New Zealand (Carbery, 1999). Given the recent seasonal abundance of onions available for feeding to stock, it seems timely to draw attention to this syndrome.