MONENSIN POISONING: RARE BUT DEADLY
In October 2014, three horses at the Masterpiece Equestrian Center in Davie, Florida, fell seriously ill with fever, elevated heart rates and general weakness that advanced rapidly toward paralysis. All three died within a week. Soon others in the barn began showing the same signs of illness.
The cause? All the horses had consumed monensin, an antibiotic that is commonly fed to cattle and poultry but is deadly to horses. Independent laboratory testing, requested by the horses’ owners, identified the source of the poisoning: The toxic drug was present in the horses’ feed, which had been purchased from Florida-based Lakeland Animal Nutrition (now called Hubbard Feeds) in Lakeland, Florida.
Lakeland’s own internal tests confirmed that two production runs of its horse feeds contained monensin. Equilete Pellet Formula, the product purchased by Masterpiece Equestrian Center, contained 1.48 grams per ton of monensin as well as 1.20 grams per ton of lasalocid, another antibacterial drug that is toxic to horses.
The company quickly launched a product recall and halted the production of all equine
