With the recent tragedy that happened, lots of people are more aware of the issue. And I feel like more companies are hopefully tightening it up. A few smaller scale mills have recently made some changes to their medicated cattle feeds to protect from accidents happening. One in particular changed medications from bovatec to a med called bambermycins. I've been trying to find info on this medicine and I keep coming up empty other than it was referred to as "ionophore like" is there anyone here that could possibly help or know if this is just another ionophore that can be deadly to horses if accidently got mixed in or exposed to. I am aware of the safe vs free mills they are saying they are now ionophore free but I can't find anything on this new med they are using to replace bovatec.
Bambermycin is a non ionophore antibiotic. It's common for some feed mills to and antibiotics to cattle feed. It does, however , have a long half life. Any drug in large amounts can cause problems in horses.
I'm attaching the screenshots from the veterinary compendium :
There are "safe mills" that are not only ionophore free, but have no medications of any kind on the property. It seem like feed contamination is the ever ongoing story as long as mills make both equine and cattle feeds on the same property. There are choices. Choose wisely.
Posted 2024-09-25 10:09 AM Subject: RE: Horse feed contamination
Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
Liana D - 2024-09-24 1:30 PM
Bambermycin is a non ionophore antibiotic. It's common for some feed mills to and antibiotics to cattle feed. It does, however , have a long half life. Any drug in large amounts can cause problems in horses.
I'm attaching the screenshots from the veterinary compendium :
Thank you for this.! I'm glad to see changes being made in some mills. 2 that I know of that used ionophores have stopped and found an alternative that's safe for horses if there was ever an issue. Now let's just hope they stick with their stringent practices of not letting any contamination happen in the first place.
Posted 2024-09-25 11:35 AM Subject: RE: Horse feed contamination
Expert
Posts: 1694 Location: Willows, CA
The discription looks like it is for turkey, Chicken and Pigs. I wonder if there is a cattle application. The clean up required to go from a medicated cattle or other species feed to a horse feed has been in place for many years, and yet this still happens. I still say that the only really safe way to guarantee that there is not cross contamination at the mill is to only feed horses products that are made in a Equine only mill with no medications allowed on the property.
Horse feed contamination
Bambermycin is a non ionophore antibiotic. It's common for some feed mills to and antibiotics to cattle feed. It does, however , have a long half life. Any drug in large amounts can cause problems in horses. 