Another Horse Dies at Fairgrounds as State Orders Recall of Hay Cubes

One more horse died at the Orange County Fairgrounds Equestrian Center as state officials ordered a recall of 850 to 1,000 tons of hay cubes distributed to stables from Ventura to San Diego that may be tainted with a deadly toxin, officials said Thursday.

In addition, an experimental antiserum was flown to Orange County from Georgia on Thursday to use on another horse that fell ill.

Botulism has been blamed in the deaths of at least 16 horses in four Southern California counties, and veterinarians believe the toxin was in hay cubes manufactured in Utah and shipped between Oct. 25 and 28 to at least 60 stables in Southern California, officials said.

So far, researchers have tested hay cubes from seven stables where horses have died or become ill and found only two to three pounds of the compressed hay cakes to contain bacteria that produce the botulism toxin.

But as a precaution, a regionwide roundup has been ordered of the candy bar-sized cubes produced by a Los Angeles County company, said Stanley Buscombe, head of the feed and fertilizer branch of the state Department of Food and Agriculture. Officials believe that all the dead and sick horses were fed the hay cakes from Paramount Cubing before they became ill.

Veterinarians confirmed Wednesday that several of the cubes collected from a San Bernardino County stable where three horses have died contained remains of a rabbit. Those remains may have carried a botulism bacteria that is commonly found in dogs and cats but is extremely rare--and deadly--in horses, they said.

Buscombe said no complaints have been filed against Paramount Cubing, adding that the company has voluntarily suspended all shipments of its hay cubes and is cooperating fully with the recall of its product.

As much as 1,000 tons of the cubes were trucked to Southland stables, and Buscombe said each facility has been telephoned and advised to stop using the feed. A majority of that feed, he believes, has not been consumed.

Meanwhile, an 8-year-old quarter horse was destroyed Wednesday night at the Orange County fairgrounds, bringing the total to eight that have been killed at the Costa Mesa facility where 260 horses are boarded.

Three more horses in Los Angeles County, two in Ventura County and three in Chino have also succumbed to botulism over the past two weeks.

In a discouraging development, veterinarians reported Thursday that four more horses--including one at the fairgrounds and one at Smokey Stables in Huntington Beach--became ill, the first new cases reported since Sunday, officials said.

“It is really disheartening,” said Jill Lloyd, spokeswoman for the Orange County Fairgrounds. “We finally felt we were making some progress, and then this.”

The latest horse to take ill at the equestrian center is a 7-year-old Thoroughbred, which was being exercised in one of the riding rings Thursday morning when she suddenly stopped trotting and started shaking. The horse was taken back to her barn, where, Lloyd said, “all she wanted to do was lie down.” That symptom is consistent with the malady, which seems to short-circuit the animal’s central nervous system.

The sickness, Lloyd said, has a five- to seven-day incubation period, and the equestrian center did not switch from cubes to baled alfalfa until Monday.

“We won’t be out of the woods until next Monday,” she said. “Until then we’re going to keep our fingers crossed.”

To halt the progression of the illness, veterinarians began treating the ailing Thoroughbred with an experimental antiserum flown to Orange County late Thursday from the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. About 200 vials of the drug--enough to treat 20 horses--were obtained for $15,000 and were paid for and donated by Pat Marshall, a horse owner at the equestrian center. Her horse has not been affected.

There is no cure for the botulism, but veterinarian Robert Bettey of Yorba Linda said that if the antiserum can slow or halt the progression of the illness it may give the horse time to “bounce back” and overcome the debilitating effects.

“It has been proven in humans who contract botulism that if they can remain alive for a couple of weeks their bodies naturally rebound,” said Bettey, one of the chief veterinarians treating the ailing horses. “We are hoping the same is true for the horses.”

The tainted cubes were processed at Paramount Cubing’s mill in Delta, Utah. Freshly cut hay is shredded and then compressed into the cubes, and experts believe a rabbit may have been caught up in the harvested hay, and then became part of the cubes. The resulting bacteria secreted by the animal parts may have then been passed on to the horses.

In baled hay, any dead rodents or small animals can be spotted and removed before being fed to horses, Buscombe said. There is also plenty of oxygen circulating in loosely baled hay to prevent the bacteria spores from growing. But in a compressed cube--void of oxygen, exposed to moisture and stored in a cool place--the spores quickly multiply and can remain for weeks. It is this special set of circumstances that coincided, veterinarians believe, to produce the fatal bacteria.

Buscombe said it is not unusual for small animals to become trapped in harvesting machinery.

“I remember that rodents, snakes and all kinds of little animals were mixed up in the hay when it was cut. It’s just not that unusual,” Buscombe said in a telephone interview from Sacramento. In fact, he said, it is possible there have been other outbreaks of this type of botulism in horses but they simply went unreported or undetected.