Cyclopic lamb

Fig. (2). Cyclopic lamb from a ewe dosed with cyclopamine on the fourteenth day of gestation.

The cyclopic lambs generally died soon after birth due to their inability to breathe and feed properly and most deformed lambs were humanely killed at birth. A genetic basis for the disease was eliminated by careful breeding experiments in which carrier ewes were mated to carrier rams [22]. The incidence of the disease appeared to correlate both with the... 

Alkaloids of Veratrum are highly toxic to livestock. Consumption of these compounds results in teratological effects, especially in sheep (Keeler, 1986). One of the most bizarre effects is the production of lambs with one eye or cyclop-ism. Under some circumstances, this deformity may affect as many as 25% of the lambs produced (Keeler, 1986). The three most active alkaloids are jervine (83), cyclopamine (96), and cyclopsine (97) (Keeler, 1986). Jervine has an LD50 i.v. in mouse of 9.3 mg/kg and veratradine (94) of 1.4 mg/kg rubijervine (67) in rat of 70 mg/kg and protoveratrine a lethal dose in rabbit of 0.1 mg/kg (Wink, 1993). 

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