04/08/2023
Oh dear lord 😳 i'll definitely keep pulling mine! Hopefully people know better than to listen to this 🃏... plenty of Ragwort on the verges for the wildlife!
🐎RAGWORT POISONING IN HORSES 🐎
🐴Lots of "misinformation" about RAGWORT.
RAGWORT has been "wrongly labelled as a w**d"
🐴People who say RAGWORT is a problem for horses are "Scaremongering".
🐴There's apparently a lot of "Fake News" being spread about RAGWORT and horses.
🐴RAGWORT is apparently "Not a threat to horses".
🐴An "average horse" would have to ingest over "50kg of RAGWORT" apparently for it to be "Toxic".
🐴"...We are wrong to remove them [RAGWORT]".
These are all pearls of wisdom from some nameless "expert" from a page called WILDLIFE CONSERVATION IN THANET!
Not sure how owners who have lost horses to ragwort poisoning will feel about his comments.
SOME RAGWORT FACTS......
Of 865 liver samples received by pathology services over a 5 year period, 72 (8.3%) were found to have evidence of megalocytosis; an indicator of ragwort poisoning. This actually translates to 57 samples a year. REMEMBER - this is going to be a gross underestimation of the number of cases as the majority are unlikely to have samples submitted for diagnosis. Some cases will be treated, some will die, some will be euthanised without a diagnosis.
In 2014 a BEVA survey reported that of 303 vets, 41% had seen at least one suspected case of ragwort poisoning in the past year. Each vet was seeing at least 2 cases per year. 49% died or were euthanised.
In a survey by the BHS & DEFRA in 2014, 19% of respondents knew of a horse that was susepcted to have been poisoned by ragwort, with a defintive diagnosis in 21% of those cases. It was reported that 39% died or were euthanised.
Even a few mouthfulls of ragwort will cause some degree of IRREVERSIBLE liver damage. The more that is eaten, the more the damage. Damage accumulates over time! Moore RE, Knottenbelt D, Matthews JB, Beynon RJ, Whitfield PD. Biomarkers for ragwort poisoning in horses: identification of protein targets. BMC Vet Res. 2008 Aug 8;4:30.
As little ragwort as 1% of bodyweight can prove fatal over time - Fu, P. P., Q. Xia, G. Lin & M. W. Chou. 2004. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids - Genotoxicity, metabolism enzymes, metabolic activation, and mechanisms. Drug Metabolism Reviews 36: 1-55.
The risk from ragwort poisoning is not simply from plants grazed in paddocks but from ragwort contamination of feedstuffs such as hay or haylage.
Contrary to the video, pyrrolizidine alkaloids (the toxic compounds in ragwort and other plants), are absorbed through the skin. The absorption is low, not non-existent. If you handle ragwort frequently without gloves you will develop liver damage.
So ragwort posoning does occur in horses. It is realtively rare, but this likely due to its removal from many areas horses and ponies graze.
"However, a justification or recommendation for relaxation in ragwort control would be a risky strategy as it is possible that the
apparently low prevalence of ragwort toxicity in horses might be as a result of generally effective pasture management that, if relaxed,
might lead to an increase in toxicity cases." Andy Durham, BSc, BVSc, CertEP, DEIM, DipECEIM, MRCVS, Liphook Equine Hospital, Veterinary Record, June 13, 2015.
Postscript - “If you own horses, ponies or livestock you must not allow them to graze on land where you know ragwort is present” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/stop-ragwort-and-other-harmful-w**ds-from-spreading -animals-eating-harmful-w**ds
"Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) constitute a class of plant toxin associated with disease in humans and animals. They are found in a wide variety of plant species in the world and it is estimated that ∼3% of the world's flowering plants contain toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. The toxin is present in more than 12 higher plant families, among which three families, Compositae (Asteracea), Boraginaceae, and Leguminosae (Fabaceae), contain most toxic PAs." RAGWORT belongs to the family Compositae (Asteracea). Ibanez, G. (2005) Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Second Edition) https://www.sciencedirect.com/referencework/9780123694003/encyclopedia-of-toxicology
So, MR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION IN THANET......
1) Please get your facts right
2) Horse owners aren't looking to pull up every single ragwort plant in existence. Only the ones in the fields where our horses and ponies graze. And frankly, if we do want to remove them, that is absolutly none of your business!
