Veterinarian's ledger: 18 livestock 'drained, no predator marks'

The ledger covers the routine veterinary practice of a single rural veterinarian serving four properties within a fifteen kilometer radius of central Varginha. The pages covering the two weeks following the events of January 20 record eighteen cattle deaths, an unusually high number for a single practice in a single fortnight.

Each animal was found exsanguinated. The veterinarian recorded the same finding for all eighteen: complete exsanguination through small circular incisions of consistent diameter, located on the underside of the neck or, in three cases, at the inguinal fold. He noted that the incisions appeared to have been made post-mortem in five cases and ante-mortem in the remaining thirteen.

He recorded the absence of predator marks on every carcass. He recorded the absence of any tracks of any species at every scene, including his own footprints when he arrived at one site within an hour of the death. The ground was wet from recent rain at three of the scenes.

The pattern stopped on 2 February 1996. The veterinarian's ledger continues for another sixteen years, with no comparable cluster ever occurring again on the same circuit. He retired in 2012 and the ledger was archived as part of a regional veterinary records preservation project.