DTA seeks gifblaar antidote

Parliamentarians this week literally fell over their feet discussing the devastating effects of the poison leaf or “gifblaar” in Afrikaans, which according to them has created what they termed “the Aids or genocide of cattle in the country”.The plant is very common at this time as it grows lusciously in the very dry seasons and as it is green, it is alluring to cattle.DTA president McHenry Venaani called on government to launch a national research campaign to study the plant which has killed close to 2 000 cattle and about 1 000 small stock this year alone. It is his view that research into an antidote must begin.He noted cattle remain the most susceptible to the poison contained in the plant and once a cow has eaten it suddenly dies from a heart attack. According to him the “poison commission” established in 1961 by the former government in the Grootfontein district has advised farmers to carefully manage the plant and instead keep animals away from contaminated areas. However, this is not a viable idea because communal farmers with access only to small pieces of land cannot effectively control where their cattle go for grazing. He also said it is too laborious for farmers to uproot the plant or destroy it with herbicides. “It is interesting to note that whilst Namibia was conducting research into permanent solutions to end the cattle death toll associated with the plant, South Africa was also running parallel studies and to this day no permanent long-lasting solution has been found,” he lamented.According to the Deputy Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Sylvia Makgone the plant is worse than Aids and rather like “one bullet”.Makgone who is a practising famer herself said the problem has become unbearable.“I have gone from diesel, spirits and even salt to try and kill the plant. When the cattle eat it and drink water they just collapse, it’s like a bullet,” she said. According to her the plant mainly looks like small thorns but she has seen that it takes different forms in different areas. “It is so dangerous, that after putting ten cattle in the kraal one night, six had died the next morning. And then we saw that the plant was everywhere in the kraal,” she said.Local industry expert, Dr Anja Boshoff-De Witt, yesterday said there is not much that can be done about this plant because the death occurs so fast. According to her the plant usually grows during very dry seasons which is why it is so attractive to cattle because it is often the only green thing in the field. “Famers must just try and monitor their camps closely to see where the plant is growing or an alternative would be to give more feeding,” she said.The poison leaf is notable as a common cause of the lethal poisoning of cattle in southern Africa particularly in the north eastern parts of Namibia and is considered one of the ‘big six’ toxic plants of cattle in South Africa. According to Wikipedia, a 1996 estimate of plant poisonings in South Africa attributed 8% of cattle mortality caused by gifblaar. The majority (70%) of fatal cases are in Limpopo province, with 10% each in North West, Mpumalanga, and Gauteng provinces. Sodium fluoroacetate occurs in all parts of the plant and is responsible for the toxic effects. Dichapetalum cymosum, which is the scientific name, is seen as a clump of small, woody shrubs about 15 cm high. JEMIMA BEUKES

DTA seeks gifblaar antidote

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-11-03

Please login to leave a comment

DTA seeks gifblaar antidote

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-11-03

Please login to leave a comment

Subscription Required to Access Content ×

Login

Subscription Required to Access Content