Safety of foraged foods v cultivated vegetables

This is a bit of a random ponderance, sorry.

I keep on hearing (and indeed I've said it myself) to be careful with foraging in areas where there are wild rabbits or where there have been disease outbreaks, for fear of picking plants which are infected with diseases like VHD. But then I started thinking this through...are wild plants any more risky than cultivated ones? Kale, cabbage, greens, carrots etc are all grown in farm fields. And farm fields undoubtedly have wild rabbits in them. And agricultural machinery is probably extremely effective at taking any infection and throwing it all around and mixing it up with everything else.

So, is foraged food any less safe than other vegetables which are cultivated in open fields? Is it just about concentration, i.e. if you're gathering from a defined area, you're more likely to gather infectious things than if you're buying veg which will be from all over the place.

Sorry if these are just random musings that don't make sense to anyone else. I was just wondering, so I'd be interested in everyone else's thoughts...

No, I don't think that foraged food is any less safe than vegetables grown commercially. I really don't see that it can be. We have a large garden and most of my forage comes from here and I am aware when there are wild rabbits around.

There is a risk certainly from foraged food. But then I maintain there is a risk from any vegetable grown commercially and possibly also any hay.

Our rabbits are obviously vaccinated with the CombiVac. but not with the new VHD2.

Rightly or wrongly I perceive the risk with the forage that I collect from our garden to be minimal. I would prefer to take that risk and let our rabbits have a more natural diet.

I've pondered the same thing. It doesn't feel that viable to contain the risk really given its so easily carried/ transmitted

I also pondered and came to the same conclusion. It's also something I discussed with FHB regarding 'foraging season' starting - she was specifically asking how the owners were responding to the threat/perceived threat of VHD2 and if this had led to less foraging happening.

Given that they need hay anyway and that has to be brought in then you can't completely eliminate the risk. Foraging in the area where your rabbits live can't present a huge extra risk than what they are exposed to anyway.

The only thing that is worrying me at the moment is 'weedkiller season'. Some of the fields round here have just been sprayed to remove the weeds prior to the first hay cut, and some verges have been included. The council also start to go round paths / fence / verge edges around this time of year. Again, there is the potential for overspill into other areas, such as the dandelions on my drive - carefully cultivated for the bunnies, but have to be scrapped when the council's weedkiller seeps through.

Unless you actually see the spraying (or physical evidence such as tyre tracks through the fields), you don't know exactly where or when some areas may have been sprayed until you see the weeds going curly and dying off - which may take a few days to become visible. Basically, be vigilant and only pick healthy growth from safe areas.

Good question to ponder! I imagine farmers must take some steps to keep rabbits out of certain crops, otherwise they would have nibble marks! So I don't know how much contact the crops would have or not.

I've swapped to just collecting forage from the local greens around where I live, which have plenty of grass and weeds and left the fields for the wild rabbits. Although it's probably being over cautious as I still walk through them without bathing in disinfectant afterwards.

There really isn't anything much farmers can do to keep rabbits out of fields apart from culling if it becomes an issue. They will factor in losing X% of a crop to predation whether that be birds or rabbits.

I have been thinking about this as an issue because I live in the Fens - Rabbits are prevalent and the majority of land is agricultural and regularly sprayed. My preference is to take from my own garden, or from above waist height if outside my garden, thus avoiding the issue of Rabbit presence & Dogs. I also won't harvest from field boundaries. This sometimes does mean they don't get forage daily but it means I am comfortable with what they do get.


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Hmmmmm I have briefly thought and now feel guilty because I haven't thought too much about it

I forage in areas with and without rabbits. The hospital thankfully uses bright blue weedkiller so I now not to take anything when I see that on the ground. I do think about the risks but if I see the rabbits at the Science Park as normal (so healthy), I think it must be OK still!

to me if feels like its completely unavoidable. Yes some foods might carry less risk but at what cost, giving rabbits a less wholesome & natural diet? I'm lucky in that mine have been done but if they hadn't I'd still forage. I'm not sure I'd pay attention to the height at which I'd forage given that birds are carriers, I assume squirrels too.

Thanks for your thoughts all - I'm glad that we've pretty much all come to the same conclusion!

Santa, it's a late addition, & everyone knows that I am biased towards foraging. I did it my childhood & much later restarted because it was the only way I could feed my Thumper with his GI issues. Bunny no.2, Benjie is also on a forage only diet because of prepubertal pasturella snuffles & abscesses! (desparation to see if dust elimination would have any effect) He also freaks out at the slightest thing & sometimes gets gut slow down from "nerves".

Many years ago there was a sudden outbreak of dysbiosis which was difficult to treat, & stasis in late Autumn which was unusual for the regular stasis prone buns. A forum member alerted us that all her guinea pigs had died from GI issues after eating some shop veg.
We did a survey on the forum of where people had bought their veg which started off the problems that year. This has no statistical significance scientifically whatsoever, but was interesting. I'm sorry I've got brain failure & can't remeber the O/P or thread title.
The main apparent culprit could have simply been the most commonly used "shop".
Pretty Lupin found that this outlet was chlorinating it's veg. In fact this method kills far more innocent (good) bacteria, & allows pathogens to multiply, particularly in cellophane wrapped veg.
Tongue in cheek - forage gets regularly washed by rain especially this year!
As for VHD2, I wouldn't collect under a bird roost, or tainted with any droppings "If I wouldn't like to eat it, I don't give it to bunny". On the other hand, birds poop anywhere. I've been used as a bird toilet x2 in my life. A small moving target to hit from above! I class intentional, defensive divebombing by seabirds as something different!

I also live in a predominantly arable area. Crop spraying is at the same times of year to within a couple of weeks. It's easy to know if a field has been sprayed from the tractor marks left. They spray from a wide boom so there#'s a pattern of 2 tractor wheel marks going up the field, a wide gap & then 2 wheel marks coming down in a regular pattern. Unfortunately we don't know exactly when it was sprayed unless it wasn't there a couple of days ago!

Wildies? When you get to know your area, you'll know where they live, & get used to their runs & communal latrines. Here, the commonest place for burrows is in a bramble thicket! They don't go further from their burrows than they can run. However they also like our forage food so I find it's all been eaten out near the warrens. Also they eat down the grass so it is even shorter than a bowling green. It's so easy to see!!
I would say that the main risk specifically for forage fed buns is coccidiosis from wildies, but with common sense, it's very small.

A risk to ME when foraging in this area, is Lyme disease from deer ticks, because roe deer are so common, I see a small group at least every week. For me, it's long socks over trousers, & bicycle/jubilee clips!! It's no risk to the buns!!

It's a good question Santa.