Uruguay-Lightening Strikes 52 cattle.

URUGUAY

LIGHTENING KILLS 52 CATTLE.

A lightening killed 52 steers during an electric night storm, on a farm in San Jose 100 kilometers from Montevideo in Uruguay on Wednesday 31 December 2008.

The lightening apparently struck a metal fence, the incident is unprecedented in the country.

There were 400 cattle in the paddock at the time of the incident, the farm foreman found the dead cattle on his morning stock inspection.

The official Department of Agriculture report states "The animals had unequivocal symptoms of having been fulminated by an electric discharge which has been transmitted by way of the wire fence".

"Although scientifically possible because wire is a natural conductor, the whole incident is extremely unfortunate" said Fernando Torena a meteorologist.

The cattle must have fled to the fence and huddled in fear, from the thunder and lightening, they would all be soaking wet from the rain.

The value of the cattle was US$30,000, there is to be no further investigation into the incident.