RAGWORT POISONING.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 323, 4 January 1937, Page 8

RAGWORT POISONING.

Cases In England and Wales. Many farmers will remember the scare occasioned by the outbreak of Winton disease in Southland about the end of last century. Stock commenced to die from unaccountable causes, and investigation showed that the disease was really poisoning from ragwort. It is reported this last month that many deaths of stock have occurred in England and Wales from the same cause. Commenting on these deaths, a writer in the “British Farmer and Stock Breeder” says: “It is not generally recognised that ragwort is poisonous, probably because cattle and horses avoid it in the pasture. Unless driven by hunger they will not take sufficient of it to do them any harm. The trouble arises, however, when the hay contains much of the weed, and as the poison is cumulative in action it is only a question of time before enough is taken to cause very serious symptoms, that frequently end fatally. Sheep, on the other hand, are supposed to be able to eat ragwort with impunity, but this is not quite correct, for after continuous feeding on the weed losses may occur. Possibly the young plants do not contain so much of the poisonous principles as the full-grown ones, which are richer in it just before flowering than after. The onset of poisoning is very insidious, and the symptoms may not come on for quite a long time after the ragwort is eaten. Death may not follow for as long as a month afterwards. “In the early stages the poisoned animals appear to be hidebound, and later stagger as they walk, some seemingly being blind, or quite heedless of what they blunder into. Later still, they become very excitable and aggressive, charging everyone who goes near them.

“Post-mortem examination shows the liver reduced in size, slaty blue in colour, leathery to the touch, and tough to cut. The fourth stomach and the small intestines are inflamed, but the remaining three stomachs are healthy.” Amongst methods suggested for the eradication of ragwort have been the breeding of Cinnabar moths, the caterpillars of which feed on the leaves of the ragwort.