Botulism outbreaks in horses are usually bad news. Horses are very susceptible to botulism, and outbreaks in horses caused by contamination of food often end up killing multiple horses on a farm. The recent botulism outbreak in Reddington, IN is another reminder of how deadly it can be.

The outbreak involved a family that lost five horses to suspected botulism. "Suspected" because this disease can be hard to confirm sometimes, although it’s usually possible to make a pretty solid presumptive diagnosis based on how the horses look and by ruling out the few other possible causes. The details are pretty sketchy. Apparently there are some other sick horses, but how sick they are and how many isn’t clear.

Botulism occurs in two ways. In adult horses, it almost invariable occurs after ingestion of the extremely potent botulinum toxin produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium. In foals, it usually occurs after ingestion of the bacterium, which then produces toxin in the foal’s intestinal tract.

In adults, outbreaks are usually associated with contaminated feed.  There are some high-risk feeds like haylage and silage (see photo) that we usually focus on first, but sometimes botulism toxin can be found in hay or other common feeds. Haylage, silage and other fermented feeds become a problem with they are improperly fermented, allowing the Clostridium botulinum to grow and produce its toxins. Sometimes, contamination of feeds can occur when an animal that has died of botulism (and has the bacterium and its toxins in its body) gets incorporated into hay or other feedstuffs.

When an outbreak is suspected, a key step is removing any potentially contaminated feeds to reduce further exposure, although often it’s too late by the time the disease is recognized. Antitoxin (which is pre-formed antibodies that help neutralize the botulinum toxin) can be given to exposed horses, but it’s extremely expensive and does not reverse any damage that’s already been done. That’s why these outbreaks are often so disasterous, because when the diagnosis is made the only thing left to do may be damage control to try to save some of the less affected horses. That’s tough because botulism has a very high mortality rate in horses.

The farm owners in Reddington are urging local horse owners to be on the lookout for botulism. It’s reasonable, but rarely do we see multi-farm outbreaks from botulism. They also state that botulism doesn’t affect cattle, which is wrong. Cattle are more resistant than horses, but they certainly can get botulism.

A botulism outbreak in horses poses little risk to people. People are susceptible to this horrible disease as well, but to get it someone would have to ingest the same contaminated feed that the horse did. There’s no risk of transmission of botulism from an infected horse to a person or another animal.