A SECOND murder probe has hit Brazil in a week as rat poison was found in a New Year’s Day meal – killing three members of the same family and leaving six others in hospital.

The rat poison rice has so far claimed the lives of one-year-old tot, Igno Davi da Silva, three-year-old Luana da Silva, and their uncle Manoel, 18.

The mum of the two children who have passed Francisca Maria remains in intensive care along with her one other child aged four in the north-east Brazilian state of Piaui.

Local media Fantastico reported overnight that tests had discounted the presence of poison in donated fish the family had eaten.

But it was unveiled that leftover rice they had consumed contained a deadly pesticide used to kill rats and other rodents.

Police chief Abimael Silva told the programme: “Someone put the substance in the rice on the first day.

“We understand that there was an intention to put this substance in their food and we’re going to start a murder investigation, ruling out natural or accidental death.”

Police sources said they haven’t ruled out the possibility of a relative being responsible.

Maria dos Aflitos da Silva, the mum of deceased 18-year-old Manoel, said she believed someone with criminal intent broke into the family home before deliberately poisoning the meal.

The food poisoning is shockingly the second involving the same family in the past year.

Francisca Maria lost two older children in the space of just two months last year – eight-year-old Ulisses Gabriel da Silva and his seven-year-old brother Joao Miguel da Silva.

A neighbour named as Lucelia Maria da Conceicao Silva, 52, was accused of giving the children nuts laced with insecticide for allegedly taking fruit from a tree in her back yard.

She was charged charged with double homicide and is believed to be in prison as part of her pre-trial custody arrangements.

Detectives are not linking last year’s crimes to the current criminal probe at this stage.

News of the latest twist in the case came as detectives in Torres revealed a woman had been held on suspicion of triple murder and attempted murder following a horror Christmas cake poisoning there.

Officers have not officially named her but she has been widely identified in local press as Deise Moura, the daughter-in-law of Zeli dos Anjos who made the traditional festive treat.

Moura allegedly baked the deadly Christmas dessert at Zeli’s home before bringing it to a family gathering in Torres, in Rio Grande do Sul state, on December 23.

The poisoned cake claimed the lives of Zeli’s sisters Maida, 58, and Neuza, 65, as well as Neuza’s daughter, Tatiana, 43.

The three victims of the Christmas poisoning died of cardiac arrest shortly after eating the dessert.

Tatiana’s 10-year-old son Matheus, Zeli’s great nephew, was also taken into intensive care and only released from hospital last Friday.

Zeli, who ate two slices of the cake, remains in hospital but is now stable and expected to be quizzed by cops soon.

Maida’s husband Jefferson was the other relative hospitalised along with Zeli, who ate two slices of cake and is said to have been exposed to more of the arsenic it contained.

Local police chief Marcus Vinicius Muniz Veloso refused to confirm the identity of the woman in custody.

But he said the suspect disrupted an otherwise “harmonious” family dynamic and have “robust evidence” linking her to the crime.