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We must start this section by agreeing with the author of that ‘other site’, that the BHS estimates of horse deaths in 2002 of 6,500 are bad statistics. Their survey had a poor response, yet BHS made a direct extrapolation on those returns without any attempts to answer the obvious question ‘did the non responders have no horse deaths to report?’ However, it was equally wrong of that sites author to suggest that results of a Government survey covering 1980 - 1990 could in any way be indicative of toady’s animal death rates from PAs, after nearly two decades of sustained ragwort invasion.
It is not possible to know or even sensibly estimate the damage being done by ragwort PAs today in the UK, without the structured collection of targeted and verifiable data on the ingress of PAs into the UK’s food chains. The only published Government sponsored data on PA contamination that we have found, was a small survey of two dozen honey samples analysed in 1994 -see results here. Unless our Government takes seriously, the danger ragwort poses to human and animal health and to our economies, we will be ill prepared to prevent the probable consequences of a further escalation in ragwort levels.
Of course, the Government may well be monitoring the PA situation. But if they are, the results have been kept away from public scrutiny.
The reality of the danger from ragwort PAs lies in the name given to it in the WHO study (EHC 80 Introduction p16) -- they called it “the iceberg disease”. Ragwort earned this name because the vast majority of PA damage happens without sign or symptom. Diseases caused by ragwort are not likely to be attributed to their real cause, because of the usual lengthy period over which the damage builds up.
The author of that other site, states that any large number of affected horses must be due to “an epidemic of bad horse care”, and that “Horses generally avoid the weed”. That person has clearly failed to study the growth characteristics of common ragwort to any extent beyond the popular descriptions of its growth. Horses and cows can, and do, suffer from ragwort poisoning long before the classical rosettes and yellow flowers of ragwort appear. Even the most conscientious of owners would be hard put to detect a surge of ragwort seedlings caused by wind-borne seeds.
It must be remembered that ragwort’s mode of operation is STEALTH and that liver destruction is cumulative. It is often quoted that generally a horse can continue to function until only 30% of its liver is left working. Then, when the remainder becomes overloaded, the animal quickly succumbs to liver failure. Routine survey of horses by Redwings Horse Sanctuary showed that most of the horses they tested had measurable levels of liver damage.
It is likely that ALL horses in Britain, together with many sheep and bovines, have some level of ragwort induced liver damage. Some will be trivial, many will be slight, some will be extreme and a few will have accumulated sufficient damage to have become fatalities. Many horses will still have a reasonable quantity of liver still in reserve, some will now be dangerously close to losing their remaining spare capacity. When this happens, horses will start to die in much larger numbers than they have up until now. As ragwort seedlings become even more commonplace in grazing land, the rate at which horses lose their final safety margin of liver capacity will increase the statistics still further. Of course, the same will also apply to cattle.
Bad statistics or absence of statistics should not be guiding our actions. The knowledge that ragwort is invisibly eating away at animals’ livers should be more than enough to prompt DEFRA to enforce the legislation they are charged with overseeing.
If you need to study the symptoms of ragwort poisoning in horses or need to consider support treatments see here.
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