Recently both Triple Crown and Progressive have been implicated in ractopamine contamination. Plus there were the recent monsenin poisonings. Like a lot of other posters, I feel like calling every feed & supplement company I use is a daunting task. Can we leverage each other’s work and compile a list? Any chance an admin can make this a sticky?
Seminole.
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Cavalor
Ranch-Way here in Colorado has totally separate facilities for horse and livestock feed.
But according to that reply from TC on another thread, just because the mill doesnt produce both horse and cow feeds, it doesnt mean contamination wont occur. The tankers that transport the feed sometimes carry cow and then carry horse. Thats where one poisonous transfer took place. Wasnt the mill but the tankers.
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If I was reading the Cargill (Progressive) ractopamine situation correctly, the culprit was a contaminated ingredient, not the entire product. It doesn’t matter where the product itself is manufactured or milled when the ingredients may be sourced from multiple places.
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Yep, those 2 recent contaminations did not occur as a result of anything going wrong in the mills themselves 
The only option is for horse-only mills, sourcing ingredients from companies who don’t also provide ingredients that are either illegal, or deadly, and I pretty much promise, that will make horse feed hugely expensive. They’d either have to source every single ingredient which never deals in anything related to any animal which has additives potentially problematic to horses, or would have to test all ingredients for all contaminants.
I wish it was listed which ingredient had the ractopamine contamination.
Does anyone happen to have a container of Soothing Pink? It’s obviously off the Progressive site now, and that would be the only way to try to figure it out - see what Ingredient(s) is missing from the Soothing Pink Extra Strength.
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In Canada, feed transport companies have protocols they have to follow before/after hauling certain feeds. For some feeds they have to fully flush out their truck, for others they just can’t haul the product too closely after hauling another a specific feed (so might have to haul something like wheat for three hauls). However, if the feed or feed additive is just something that tests, and not something that is actually dangerous/harmful, I am not sure that there would be a protocol for the trucking company. I do not know if there is communication between what is banned showing wise and the policy makers.
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McCauley’s
You guys have good points re: transport & sourcing ingredients. I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and hope for the best.
That’s what (allegedly) happened with the Progressive product - there are protocols for the supplier trucks to wash down between at least cattle and equine loads, and that wasn’t followed. The procedures are all in place - have to clean mill chutes between batches, etc, but people get careless, don’t remember, don’t care, whatever
However, if the feed or feed additive is just something that tests, and not something that is actually dangerous/harmful, I am not sure that there would be a protocol for the trucking company. I do not know if there is communication between what is banned showing wise and the policy makers.
The various companies shouldn’t ever have to be responsible for things that test. AFAIK the policies are to clean “things” between batches that are changing, and for sure when changing species-specific, or even species-generic feedstuffs (like the All-Stock feed still shouldn’t have monensin in it).
The protocols are already there. The problem is when they aren’t followed, for whatever reason.
Any time there is any middle man in the business of moving ingredients that are fine for one species, but that are harmful to another, human involvement inherently mean mistakes will be made.
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True,
There is also the fact that companies change mills, so this list may give some folks a false sense of security down the road.
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Seminole has their own mill right here in Ocala. No cattle feed at all.
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Oh yes, it does matter. Purina in Canada (not US Purina, totally different unfortunately) has not only a horse feed only facility for manufacturing Canadian feed, ingredients are checked for contamination, and log books are checked to ensure that loads previous to the current incoming load were did not contain anything that could contaminate raw materials.
It absolutely matters that all t’s are crossed and all i’s are dotted … it’s just that manufacturers who have been there and done that are few and far between and not well known.
I feed TC, and was disappointed when I heard that the mill does both. I understand what they are saying about that ingredients can get contaminated but it seems like having the cattle feed there just gives one extra chance for something to go wrong.
On top of this, a recent thread in Sandhills equestrians brought up that people in my area have been finding either beer pulp sticks or wood chips in their grain. I have also started seeing corn bits in my ration balancer… so I think I may be switching.
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I agree that “it doesn’t matter” was probably poor phrasing on my part. What I should have said was it wouldn’t have prevented this specific instance.
Of course we should all be concerned that feed manufacturers make quality control a priority.
But in this specific case with Cargill, the cause was not cross-contamination from milling the product on the same lines where livestock feed was run. Rather, the product was a supplement (which I assume was mixed in a very different location than feed products) that utilized an ingredient from a third party that should not have contained ractopamine at all.
It was an accident, for all intents and purposes. An accident that Cargill seems to have taken very seriously by pulling the product, offering a replacement, and taking action to remedy the situation for the future.
It does sound like Purina Canada runs a tight ship. But I’m curious, how do they check for contamination? As a chemist, I know that’s a pretty daunting task-- you can’t “check” for everything. You can test for likely contaminants, sure… but there’s no way you can 100% guarantee the product hasn’t been exposed to something problematic when the list of potentially problematic contaminants is miles long.
While we should demand safe feed for our animals, we also have to remember we live on planet reality. It’s impossible for companies to prevent everything. IMO, it’s all in how they handle accidents if/when they do happen.
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Especially when it’s a substance that isn’t harmful to horses (at least in amounts that contamination typically infers), but rather is an ingredient that is illegal under some governing bodies.
Does ANY company keep up with all the banned substances under all organizations, much less have the ability to test for all of them?
Purina Canada= Cargill
Cargill owns Purina in every other country than the United States.
Aside from reading posts - assuming I get out here often enough to catch them - where are you all finding this information about the latest contamination incidents, etc.?
I would like to have something I can google or…?.. some way to keep up on my own…
TIA…
In my Googling to see if ractopamine or some form of, was used in calming/ulcer/digestive supplements, I ran across this info from http://blog.biostarus.com/facts-about-contaminated-feed-and-supplements/
I found it interesting that ractopamine contamination showed up in two different ulcer or digestive type supplements from two different manufacturers almost 10 yrs apart…Neigh-Lox in 2008 and now Soothing Pink Formula. I can’t help but wonder if this is coincidence or correlation?
From the article…
"Here is a list of feed contamination cases made part of the public record in the US from 2013 to 2016:
[I]• Western Milling, a California feed manufacturer, sold monensin-contaminated equine feed that killed or severely injured 50 horses. (2015)
• Lakeland Animal Nutrition, an Alltech company, produced adulterated equine feed (monensin) that killed eleven horses. (2014)
• A class action suit on behalf of over 100 horse-feed purchasers has been brought against Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM) and ADM Alliance Nutrition. The plaintiffs seek damages of over $5 million for fraud, negligent misrepresentation and product liability. Of the 19 horses that tested positive for monensin poisoning, nine had to be euthanized. (2016)
• An out-of-court settlement was reached between Kalmbach Feeds Inc. (Tribute Equine Nutrition) and the plaintiffs over contamination of Tribute feed that killed the plaintiffs’ Percheron horses. The feed tested positive for monensin. (2016)
• The US Department of Justice filed an enforcement action against Syfrett Feed Company Inc. of Okeechobee, Florida. Seventeen horses died in 2014 from eating the pelleted horse feed. (2017)
• The Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency issued a warning regarding the drug ractopamine appearing in feeds. Following several positive tests in Ontario, the Ontario Racing Commission undertook an investigation that found ractopamine in batches of horse feed. Similar findings were reported in Alberta and Quebec. The standardbred trainers whose horses had tested positive for ractopamine were cleared at their hearings, and not assessed penalities resulting from contamination of the feed. (2014)
• Forty-eight race horses in California tested positive for zilpaterol in a number of Purina Animal Nutrition sweet feed products manufactured in Turlock, California. The feeds affected were Purina Race Ready, Purina Strategy, Purina Omoline-200, Country Acres Horse Feed and Country Acres Sweet-12. (2013)
• Thoroughbred racehorse trainer Kelly Von Hemel was found blameless by the Prairie Meadows Board of Stewards when two of his horses rested positive for ractopamine. He was able to prove the contamination originated from a batch of Triple Crown 14% Racing Performance feed produced at the Consumers’ Supply Distributing mill in North Sioux City, South Dakota. The mill admitted that it ran cattle feed supplemented with ractopamine prior to the production run of Triple Crown horse feed. (2016)
• Bartlett Milling recalled two of its equine feeds because of possible monensin contamination. The feeds were distributed in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. (2014)
• Nutrena Feeds has stated that it is conducting an investigation of contaminated feed made in LeCompte, Louisiana that killed one barrel racing horse and sickened another. As of this writing, no more information has been made available about this investigation. (2016)
• Three horses died at Camelot Farms on St. Helena Island, South Carolina from feed contaminated with monensin. The feed was supplied by ADM Alliance. (2014)
Supplement contamination
While far more rare than feed contamination, supplements can also be contaminated.
British endurance rider Christine Yeoman was suspended by the FEI in 2008 when her horse tested positive for ractopamine. Traces of the drug were found in her supplement, Neigh-Lox, produced by Kentucky Performance Products. Yeoman spent over $200,000 dollars to clear her name and win an unprecedented ruling from the FEI.
There’s also the famous 2009 case, where a vitamin/mineral supplement prepared by a compounding pharmacy killed 21 polo ponies because the supplement contained toxic levels of selenium."[/I]
