Veterinary students at the UI are required to take a course in toxicology. Having fellow veterinary students serve as a garden curator has proven to heighten all of the students' awareness on the subject. Nitrates used to fertilize the fields to promote good crops also can turn deadly at high levels to animals, Sanborn said. The ornamental Japanese yew, which is popular in the Midwest, is high in taxine. Even a small amount ingested by a large animal can cause heart failure and death.
Accidents do happen.
Luckily there were no fatalities, thanks to the parents noticing the leaves early enough, but they were definitely sick. For faculty supervisor Val Beasley, a professor of veterinary biosciences, the garden has blossomed as an educational tool. Maybe we can learn to cultivate varieties of plants that have more of the good things and fewer of the bad things. It gets to be a challenge to keep tabs on all these different toxins in the plants around us, but that's why we are here. We try to teach veterinarians, and we try to offer knowledge to whomever is interested.