Ragwort
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Ragwort - Poisonious Plants, Toxic to Horses...
Ragwort thrives on wasteland, road verges and railway land and it easily spreads to grazing land and pasture.
Ragwort is a common weed that grows throughout the British Isles and Ragwort
has always been a problem for horse owners. Recently, though, it has
become apparent that ragwort may be getting out of control and posing
a real threat to the horse population.
Poor quality and poorly managed horse pastures are prone to ragwort infestation.
Closely growing grass sward prevents ragwort growth but when the grass becomes thinned out, due to poaching or over grazing, the seeds are able to germinate in the exposed soil.
Most animals will avoid eating ragwort as long as they have an alternative source of good food. This can be a problem on sparse, overgrazed pastures where ragwort can thrive.
There are reports that horses can acquire a taste for ragwort, especially if there is little else to eat.
Dried Ragwort
When cut or wilted (ie; when making hay or haylage) ragwort loses its bitter taste and becomes palatable to horses. Drying does not destroy the toxins and dried grass, hay and haylage are common sources of ragwort poisoning.
Ingestion of the pyrrolizidine alkaloid toxin contained in ragwort usially results in the delayed onset of chronic, progressive liver failure.
Ragwort the Facts
Ragwort kills livestock and horses by causing irreversible liver damage, once the horse has ingested enough to cause the damage.
All UK landowners have a duty to control ragwort.
Ragwort is normally biennial.
It produces small rosettes in the spring and flowers from July onwards, in its second year.
Effects of ragwort poisoning
Ragwort toxins are cumulative and it is common for ragwort poisoning to occur following consumption of small quantities of the plant over a long period of time.
Development of the disease can be delayed from four weeks to six months after eating the plant. Different horses to have different levels of susceptibility to the toxin.
Symptoms of ragwort poison :
- weight loss;
- poor and staring coat;
- staggering gait;
- impaired vision;
- inability to swallow;
- paralysis
If long stems of ragwort are cut, the plant behaves like a perennial, (flowering every year)
Each ragwort plant produces 150,000 seeds that remain viable for years. It is easily spread by air turbulence created by passing traffic.
DEFRA, UK Law, The Weeds Act and The Ragwort Control Act ...
Ragwort is one of five injurious weeds covered by the provisions of The Weeds Act 1959.
Ragwort is poisonous to horses, ponies, donkeys and other livestock, and causes liver damage, which can have potentially fatal consequences.
Under the Weeds Act 1959 the Secretary of State may serve an enforcement notice on the occupier of land on which injurious weeds are growing, requiring the occupier to take action to prevent the spread of injurious weeds.
The 1959 Weeds Act specifies five injurious weeds: Common Ragwort, Spear Thistle, Creeping of Field Thistle, Broad leaved Dock and Curled Dock.
In 2003 the British Horse Society sponsored a Private Member's Bill to amend the Weeds Act
BHS hoped to provide for a code of practice to prevent the spread of ragwort. The UK Government supported the Bill and the Ragwort Control Act came into force in February 2004.
Defra worked with the British Horse Society and other stakeholders, including English Nature, Wildlife Trust and ADAS to produce the code of practice, which was launched at the Royal Show in July 2004.
Plants Toxic To Horses
Poisonious Plants, Toxic to Horses
Your horse will avoid toxic plants providing they have sufficient grazing, but if it is very hungry ...
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