Death camas (Zigadenus paniculatus) is a toxic plant often associated with poisoning cases in livestock, especially in sheep, in the spring on mountain foothills. Consequently, when sheep are found dead in mountain foothills, and death camas is present, it is often implicated as the potential cause of death. However, this may be over simplistic as there may be other plants that may also contribute to, or are the cause of, death in sheep. In this study, we present a case of approximately 200 sheep out of a band of 400 that died within 24 hours of beginning to graze on a mountain foothill in northern Utah. Even though death camas was present at the location, based upon additional research and data we now believe that death camas was likely not sufficiently abundant to be the cause of poisoning that many sheep. Follow up controlled dosing experiments suggest that chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) may have been the cause of death. This study details the toxicity of the chokecherry found at the location where the sheep died.
Welch et al. (2026) studied this question.