Bernard and the other parents are part of a cluster of around two dozen families in two rural agricultural areas in France several hundred miles apart. These families have children born without hands or arms between 2011 and 2013.

France’s national health agency, Santé Publique, says they have now launched an investigation into the birth anomalies, hoping to find a common denominator that might lead to a cause.

So far, all they have found are more cases.

A simultaneous investigation has also been launched into reports that chickens and some calves were also born without limbs in the same rural areas during the time period, though most of the animals are dead by now, so that investigation has been more difficult to move forward.