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RAGWORT HYSTERIA
The British press has been full of stories about the
yellow peril of ragwort. We are told that it kills thousands
of animals It is of course understandable that people
should have a concern for their precious animals but
there is little rational need for extreme concern and
it is hard to avoid the conclusion that people are being
manipulated. Certainly there will have been no harm
done to certain organisations' public profile. On the
balance of the scientific evidence there is little cause
for people to remove ragwort from their lawns or from
waste ground. Indeed there is a good basis for leaving
it alone. There are certain researched facts that well
support the contention that this is hysteria. First
of all there is the level of toxicity of ragwort. This
is actually quite low.
The toxic dose of ragwort for a large animal is in
the order of several stone. This has been determined
by experimentation and one horse is known to have eaten
over 20% of its body weight of the plant and survived!.
Of course horses eat a lot but this puts the level of
toxicity into context. This is not cyanide we are taking
about but a mildly toxic plant.
Now to the hysteria. The following is just one example
of many. One equine magazine on the net published a
story that horses could be poisoned by "seeds and Spores"
(sic) of ragwort blowing into pasture that they would
breathe in. On the basis of the level of toxicity this
is absolute nonsense. (Even if you ignore the inaccurate
botany. Ragwort doesn't produce spores.) Yet the story
has spread. It has appeared in at least two _Government_
press releases and as even been copied by the BBC. It
is hardly suprising therefore that many people have
a false picture of the real story about his plant.
We are told that thousands of animals are poisoned
by it every year.However, what do the scientific data
say? Well, there is apparently only one set of official
statistics available. These official UK Government statistics
were published in the official State Veterinary Journal.
Here they are:
The number of reported incidents of ragwort (Senecio
jacobaea) poisoning in cattle in England, Wales and
Scotland were 26 (1985), 10 (1986), 16 (1987), 13 (1988),
7 (1989), 10 (1990).
Hardly the picture we have been led to believe and
incidentally this is supported by scientific papers
from the continent which say poisoning is rare.
However, let's just remember that Ragwort has some
positive qualities too. This is one of the things that
one of The UK Government's official government wildlife
bodies says. "As a native plant ragwort has been studied
for many years by naturalists. Even way back in 1957
a report concluded that it is eaten by, or is host to,
over 81 species of insects including five "red data
book" and eight "nationally scarce" species. Living
on those 81 species there have been a further 25 parasitic
insect species identified. In addition there have been
177 species of insects observed using ragwort as a nectar
source. It has also been observed as host to the Common
Broomrape and 14 species of fungi. " To see more of
the myths debunked you can visit http://www.ragwortfacts.com/
Another good site is that on the Ragwort
Project by Buglife
back to wildlife index
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