What's with all the monensin-contaminated feed?

[Sticky_Situation]

I’ll admit that my knowledge of horse and livestock feed production is limited, and I had essentially no knowledge of monensin until the recent stories of horses eating tainted feed, but as cardiotoxic as it seems to be I would expect there to be numerous safeguards in place to make sure contamination doesn’t happen. If small amounts for a short period of time can cause lethal damage to a horse’s heart, contamination is something that should never be happening.

And yet, it has happened with more than one feed manufacturer in the last six months. Is this something that has been going on all along and we are just now becoming aware due to social media? Or has monensin use expanded without adequate safeguards to keep it out of horse feed? I’m wondering why we’ve been hearing about it so much lately… And as horse owners, how can we keep our own safe?

[SnicklefritzG]

Sounds like crappy QA to me.

I plan to do my own inquiries into what is going on within different companies as far as the feed lines are concerned. If there are some that are equine only, I would prefer those. The only way it would be ok to mix feed lines is if there is an extremely thorough cleaning process between say running a line for cattle and one for horses. Then you’d have to trust that they have adequate QA procedures and are following them. Maybe these companies won’t reveal anything, but if I can get something in writing, say in an email response, about what type of lines hey have, that could end up being valuable info.

This company will be their own undoing if they don’t address the problem adequately. They will deny it until the nth hour when the regulatory bodies go on site and find serious problems. If that doesn’t happen, well I’ll go with who seems to have the best and most robust processes. These other companies will just end up screwing themselves because no one will trust them anymore.

Unfortunately this kind of crap happens all the time. Car manufacturers used to deny, deny, deny, and then pay off lawsuits rather than do recalls. How many recalls do we see for human products. It’s sad, but it happens. I am still unhappy though with the way that ADM has addressed the problem on their website and in social media. I’d never do business with them on that basis.

[Manni01]

I think its simply horrible to read about all this. I remember we had a scandal in Germany several years ago, there they found out that the fat in feeds was actually old machine oils and fats… anything which was supposed to go into the trash… Obviously somebody thought using it in feeds in order to increase the fat %age was more profit that just throwing it away…

It sounded pretty horrible to me although I don’t know of any problems for the animals eating that food… Then and now I am totally glad that I just feed hay and oats… So these scandals don’t bother me too much…

[Fergs]

Does anyone know the full list of feed manufacturers that have been found to produce monensin-tainted feed?

[HenryisBlaisin]

Our 4-H club went for a tour of the Southern States plant here this week, and they explained the steps they take to keep this from happening. They make several runs of cattle or other feeds after a run of something with monesin or other things that could harm horses before running anything labeled for horses. The same goes for feeds that contain copper, etc.

The computer system that controls the mixing will not allow them to start a run of horse feed within a certain number of batches of one that contains monesin, so they could not accidentally produce a horse feed on a contaminated line. It was interesting to learn about how they approach the problem in a mill that makes multiple feeds.

[Bluey]

Here local feed mills have a separate mill just for their horse products.

Cleaning bins out properly is supposed to happen, no matter what is mixed there, but why take ANY chance at all?

[SnicklefritzG]

[QUOTE=HenryisBlaisin’;7972368]
Our 4-H club went for a tour of the Southern States plant here this week, and they explained the steps they take to keep this from happening. They make several runs of cattle or other feeds after a run of something with monesin or other things that could harm horses before running anything labeled for horses. The same goes for feeds that contain copper, etc.

The computer system that controls the mixing will not allow them to start a run of horse feed within a certain number of batches of one that contains monesin, so they could not accidentally produce a horse feed on a contaminated line. It was interesting to learn about how they approach the problem in a mill that makes multiple feeds.[/QUOTE]

That’s awesome.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=HenryisBlaisin’;7972368]
Our 4-H club went for a tour of the Southern States plant here this week, and they explained the steps they take to keep this from happening. They make several runs of cattle or other feeds after a run of something with monesin or other things that could harm horses before running anything labeled for horses. The same goes for feeds that contain copper, etc.

The computer system that controls the mixing will not allow them to start a run of horse feed within a certain number of batches of one that contains monesin, so they could not accidentally produce a horse feed on a contaminated line. It was interesting to learn about how they approach the problem in a mill that makes multiple feeds.[/QUOTE]

That right there is slightly terrifying to me. I have always had a good bit of respect for Southern States. I would have thought they would separate their milling.

I wonder if the widespread use of computer systems that have built in safeties and monitoring have created a false sense of security for feed companies. In years past, no reputable equine feed mill would ever run monensin in the same building, let alone on the same line. I don’t care how many batches you run in between.

[CHT]

It is also the trucking (if buying bulk feed). If the trucking company doesn’t do their job of cleaning out the trailer properly then you can get contamination that way.

[pony_grandma]

It is just so heartbreaking.

http://eventingnation.com/home/contaminated-horse-feed-causes-panic-in-georgia/

There should be a class action suit.

[Sticky_Situation]

[QUOTE=pony grandma;7972575]
It is just so heartbreaking.

http://eventingnation.com/home/contaminated-horse-feed-causes-panic-in-georgia/

There should be a class action suit.[/QUOTE]

That was the article I read earlier that really got me thinking about it. How horrible for the owners of those horses … What a nightmare

[CrowneDragon]

It is very scary that it keeps happening. I contacted Triple Crown today and asked if their feed was milled alongside any medicated animal feed, and was told that the mills they used did not use any monensin at all, and they do keep very high quality control regarding these things. When I asked about other ionophores like lasalosid (which was one of the offenders in the recent Lakeland problem in FL) and salinomycin, the rep said that some of the mills do use lasalosid and she was unsure about salinomycin.

I just keep my fingers crossed. Triple Crown make very good feed, but you often get bags which contain kernels of the whole corn that is used to clean the equipment or with bits of their sweet feeds (that contain whole grains) that must have been from previous runs and stuck in there. This certainly happens with pretty much every other company out there, I just hope that nothing sinister finds a loophole there into a bag of horse feed. I don’t know what feeds, if any, are produced at mills that do not handle medicated feeds at all.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just stop cramming this crap into the animals of the food chain in the first place??

[Jealoushe]

Brooks Feed has equine only production. Purina has cattle/dog/equine, I heard they were going to move to equine only, not sure if they did.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=CrowneDragon;7972609]
It is very scary that it keeps happening. I contacted Triple Crown today and asked if their feed was milled alongside any medicated animal feed, and was told that the mills they used did not use any monensin at all, and they do keep very high quality control regarding these things. When I asked about other ionophores like lasalosid (which was one of the offenders in the recent Lakeland problem in FL) and salinomycin, the rep said that some of the mills do use lasalosid and she was unsure about salinomycin.

I just keep my fingers crossed. Triple Crown make very good feed, but you often get bags which contain kernels of the whole corn that is used to clean the equipment or with bits of their sweet feeds (that contain whole grains) that must have been from previous runs and stuck in there. This certainly happens with pretty much every other company out there, I just hope that nothing sinister finds a loophole there into a bag of horse feed. I don’t know what feeds, if any, are produced at mills that do not handle medicated feeds at all.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just stop cramming this crap into the animals of the food chain in the first place??[/QUOTE]

At one time, I was told that Triple Crown used to source much of their regional milling to Southern States. But that may be either outdated or incorrect information- I think it came from my feed store clerk many years ago. Feed store clerks quite frequently make up things that they think their customers want to hear.

[phoebetrainer]

This will go on happening until US consumers demand NO medications in feed for any animals.

[cloudyandcallie]

ADM feed is the cause of the current dying horses over in Beaufort, South Carolina… And the feed store there did not remove the feed from the shelves, according to an article in the Islandpacket.com. The barn/stables had to pay to have the feed tested. ADM did not assist the barn/stables according to the media reports.

Anytime you buy feed from a company which also produces feed for cattle, you are at risk. Because if an employee does not clean the equipment sufficiently, the monensin can show up in the horse feed that is produced right after the cattle feed is run through the machinery. Which is one of many reasons that I buy Seminole feed. Another is that it is milled frequently. Not stored in a warehouse for months on end.

At my last barn, the BO loved ADM since she had used it in Illinois, but I did get her to let me eventually buy seminole feed and deduct it from my board. But then my horse got the ration balancer by ADM from the BO.

Years ago, a local feed company had the same thing happen and some horses died. When I bought my horses, my horse owner/hay farm owner friend told me not to buy from that company for that reason. If a feed company hires people who are careless, horses die.

[Beam_Me_Up]

How can we tell which feeds use which mills? Is it safe to look at brand (does this brand produce other livestock food) or do lots of brands buy from the same mills? Thanks!

[TwoDreamRides]

My horse eats ADM 12% and we checked the batch # on our feed last night. It’s the first we could do it, since the first instance in SC never released a lot number. The article from Eventing Nation did. Pulling bloodwork today … jingles!!

[Texarkana]

I also used to have a lot of respect for ADM, as they have been a leader in livestock nutrition for many years. But I have to say, I have been appalled at how they have handled this situation. Whether they are directly to blame or not, their defensive and flippant public responses don’t exactly give the general population any warm and fuzzy feelings.

Sending positive thoughts your way, TwoDreamRides!

[monstrpony]

I had an issue with a Purina feed a few years ago, and my local feed store put me in touch with a manager at the mill. That person said that that particular mill handled no cattle feed, that cattle and horse production was completely separate. But that doesn’t guarantee that any other mill follows that strategy.

Scary stuff. My thought are with all of those who may have horses affected