On 23/09/2012 16:04, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sun, 23 Sep 2012 14:11:23 +0100, Farmer Giles
wrote:

I'm thinking of growing a serious quantity of watercress in my garden.

We have a small river running at the bottom of it that I plan to
utilise. I don't actually mean growing it in the river, because I'm
concerned about liver fluke infestation as it flows through sheep
pasture a short way upstream, but using the water from it.

The thing is that, despite a lot of searching, I'm not sure how liver
fluke is transmitted via watercress - ie is it taken up by the plants or
do the flukes somehow attach themselves to it? If it is the latter,
would some kind of filtering remove them?

Anyone here know about this?

Don't think much of your searching ability!

Probably on a par with your politeness and tact.


Lots of info out there if
you google for watercress liver-fluke uk. See for example
www.torrens.org.uk/FFF/Fluke.html and many more.

Yes, I have found lots of information about the fluke, but none of it is
very clear about how the parasite passes from the plant to the person
who eats it - ie does one have to eat the flukes themselves, or their
eggs, or is it transmitted in other ways? Also, as I asked, can they be
removed by filtering?



I also read that it's illegal to grow watercress commercially in river
water, and that the water has to be of drinking quality; see
http://www.thewatercresscompany.co.uk/docs/Media_17.pdf.


I wasn't talking about growing it *in* river water - as I made quite
clear - but about using river water to grow it. It is perfectly legal to
abstract a fairly large quantity of water from streams and rivers for
horticultural purposes. As for it having to be of drinking quality, that
sounds like nonsense. What is 'drinking quality' - does that include
rainwater collected in a butt? If so, then I wouldn't like to drink it!