Ragwort poses health threat to humans, horses, cattle and
sheep, The British Horse Society conference told
Renowned vet Professor Derek Knottenbelt told a British Horse
Society Ragwort Awareness Conference that the weed posed a
health threat to people as well as horses, sheep and cattle.
Humans are at risk from poisoning by ragwort, Professor Knottenbelt
told a packed Saddlers' Hall, in the City of London, on Thursday
(April 27).
Professor Knottenbelt, a leading vet of the University of
Liverpool, said he fears that meat from sheep and cattle,
and also milk and honey could all become contaminated with
the deadly toxins.
He said government was currently ignoring the risk to the
human food chain, and he called for the complete destruction
of all ragwort in the UK.
"It is toxic to humans, so what the hell are we doing
with it in this country?" he asked an enraptured audience
of local authority officials, major landowners and other interested
delegates.
Professor Knottenbelt, the world's leading expert on ragwort,
said the yellow weed killed approximately 2,000 horses a year
in Britain, often by triggering liver failure resulting in
photosensitivity and in some instances cancer.
"Ragwort is a hooligan," he said. "It is a
skulking, cowardly plant. By the time you see the damage to
a horse, it is too late to save it."
He said he could scientifically prove that ragwort was poisoning
cattle, sheep, rodents - and humans. He conceded that the
risk to human health was currently at a low level, but said
that could readily change.
In a rousing speech, Professor Knottenbelt said he had deliberately
poisoned himself with ragwort to disprove critics who had
claimed it was harmless to humans. "I have tested it
on myself," he said. "My liver is in a bad state."
The Ragwort Awareness Conference, staged by the UK's leading
horse charity The British Horse Society, also heard from a
senior conservationist, a second vet and a government official
on ways of controlling and destroying the deadly weed.
Practising vet Chris House spoke eloquently on the impact
of the Ragwort Control Act 2003 and the Code of Practice,
after an introduction by conference chairman Baroness Masham
of Ilton who had guided that legislation through the House
of Lords.
BHS Chief Executive Graham Cory revealed the results of a
survey of local authorities which has shown that three-quarters
of those who responded to the survey have no ragwort strategies
in place, and of the one quarter that do, two-thirds of them
have allocated no funds to put their strategies into action.
Duncan Findlay, Managing Director of AgResource Business
Solutions Limited, spoke very thoroughly on the identification
of the different types of ragwort at different stages of its
life cycle, and, in a later session, on the safe and effective
control of ragwort.
And Mike Green, of Defra, gave an impressive and useful talk
on the safe and effective removal and disposal of ragwort
and effective preventative measures.
The conference was aimed at educating local authorities and
other major owners of land about the existing laws and the
dangers that ragwort, a poisonous weed, poses to grazing animals
and human health.
The BHS was instrumental in the formation of the Ragwort
Act 2003 and the codes of practice introduced alongside the
legislation, which amended the existing Weeds Act.
However the number of calls from the public about the spread
of ragwort in their counties had made the BHS's Welfare Department
recognise the need for a conference on this issue for major
landowners.
BHS Chairman Patrick Print said: "Education is our main
weapon in fighting the scourge of ragwort."
Afterwards, many delegates said the conference had made them
see the seriousness of the problem.
One delegate rose to his feet and said he was "stunned"
by what he had learnt which had opened his eyes to the true
dangers of ragwort.
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