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07-07-2006, 10:29 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

Sena wrote:

said...
I wasn't at all cheered by reading that some
unnamed scientific hooligans only managed to kill 75% of a sample of
cattle by feeding them 0.6% of their body weight of fresh ragwort a day
for 20 days: in the dried form, that would be quite a small amount --
perhaps something like the volume of a packet or two of tea -- and
might well escape the stockman's detection. The way the result was
quoted represented the dose as very large, and appeared to be an
attempt at reassurance.

It certainly didn't reassure me. I wondered, as I read that bit and the
bit about the horses, just who had provided the money for such wanton
slaughter. Or do we (generic) then feed ragwort-ridden cattle to animals
in the form of 'my little cat food'?

Cruel the studies may be but that doesn't affect the accuracy of the
conclusions. There is no risk at all to animals or humans from eating the
very rare examples of cattle that are poisoned because the poison is
actually destroyed when it does its poisoning. It does not accumulate in
the animals system. The effects do, but these only occur, as I have said,
above a series of biochemical thresholds.

Neil Jones
http://www.butterflyguy.com/