Horselovers Rejoice over Fungal Spray for Ragwort

British scientists are planning to create a fungal spray that is safe for the environment and kills the weed ragwort. This fungal spray would infect and then kill the weed at a vital growing stage before it causes harm to any livestock. This is promising news to those how raise or love animals.

This fungal spray will contain a precise, plant pathogenic fungus as the main active ingredient and will have no side effects on other weeds or animals around the ragwort. This fungal spray would pose no threat to the environment.

It is hoped that once this fungal spray is created that it would provide a quick, safe way to control ragwort. Ragwort is a common British weed that lives on wasteland. Horses eat it and then die from liver disease. Annually 6.500 horses die from eating this toxic weed. If there were a way to control it then the horses would not die an awful death.

How does one get rid of ragwort currently? There are many ways such as cutting or mowing the weed. However, that method encourages them to grow back. You can spray the weed with herbicides but they also kill any vegetation around the ragwort, which is awful if it is in gazing lands.

Herbicides also have the ability to carry adrift in the wind, and land on near by food for the animals, which also creates a problem. There has to be a better answer so this group of British scientists has joined forces to create this fungal spray so that horses and other livestock will not die, nor will their food be contaminated.

The project will be broken down into three parts. The first part will consist of securing funds for research as well as studies to see if native fungus occurs on ragwort to help the fungal spray that are trying to create to eliminate the weed. Phase 2 will finalize the fungal active ingredient, making it into a spray and doing field trials. In phase 3, the spray will be licensed and will begin sales.

The Weeds Act 1959, which ragwort is subject to, is supposed to be controlled to prevent the accidental deaths of livestock. Any of the weeds under this act must be controlled as they are toxic to animals and jeopardize farming actions.

It is unknown if this product will be exported to the United States but it does hold the promise which any farmer or horse lover can treasure.