UK equine charity issues ragwort warning
The British Horse Society is continuing its fight to combat the toxic plant ragwort with a third nationwide survey this month. They are again appealing to all horse lovers to take time to help complete their "snapshot survey" during BHS Ragwort Awareness Week (23-29 July 2012).
The initial survey, launched in 2010, was spurred by concern over the increase in reports of horses grazing in ragwort filled fields. More than 75 per cent of cases reported involved land that animals were grazing on or near, and a total of 13,189 horses were identified as grazing on ragwort infected pastures.
Respondents to the 2011 survey identified 20,781 horses grazing either on, or within 50 metres of, fields containing ragwort. Most reports of ragwort were received in Cambridgeshire with Hampshire, Essex, Kent and Surrey completing the top five hotspots.
Every year animals die painful and unnecessary deaths as a result of damage to their liver from consuming Ragwort. The danger that the plant poses is widely known, yet levels in the UK apparently still continue to rise.
BHS Senior Executive (Welfare), Lee Hackett, said: "Everybody involved with horses should know the danger posed by ragwort. Despite this we get hundreds of reports each year of horses' health being put at risk by grazing them in ragwort infested fields. This suggests that the education message is not getting through and that the existing legislation is not being enforced.”
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
