Alarm is growing in equestrian and farming circles about the poisonous plant ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), which is finding its way into hay and killing livestock; Soxtec 2050 supports analysis of hay
More than 1% of ragwort in hay is considered dangerous for animals.
Yet the distinctive yellow flowering plant can often be seen growing along the roadside and what is particularly alarming for livestock owners is that it is also infiltrating fields used for making natural hay.
Whole livestock herds have died - a situation that has prompted an Animal Health Service in Deventer, Netherlands, to take action by analysing samples of hay thought to contain the poisonous ragwort.
Harry Kolk, analytical chemist at the Dutch Health Service, said: "The problem started when the trend towards 'nature hay' appeared".
Natural hay is grown without the use of fertiliser that would normally kill the ragwort off.
When it is then dried and mixed up in the hay, ragwort loses its bitter taste and yellow colour, but unhappily not its poison.
Suppliers now sell 'ragwort free' hay but even so, it is a difficult claim to prove and contaminated hay can also become mixed up with other hay at the market, for example, with hay produced from regular grass fields.
The problem is particularly worrying for horse owners who often have to rely on bought-in feed of unknown origin and quality.
The health service has developed a method to analyse suspect hay based on mass spectrometer analysis with the Foss Soxtec 2050 supporting the sample preparation process.
Finding the right sample in the first place is a challenge though because the ragwort plants often grow randomly across a field.
Out of 120 bales, perhaps only one will contain the poisonous plant.
Kolk said that livestock owners should use common sense when feeding animals by looking closely at the hay to spot any suspicious looking plants, but he also highlighted that this can be difficult for the untrained eye.
"Nowadays many cattle breeders are lacking this ability.
"In the past they knew exactly which plants were poisonous," he said.
Once a sample is found the Soxtec instrument is used to dissolve the alkaloids (species with a poisonous character) from the hay samples.
The Animal Health Service in Deventer, Netherlands (GD) provides knowledge about animals and their characteristics regarding animal health and welfare and the production of safe food.
