Re: EPM in feeds?

[Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

>Just got a piece of promotional literature from a feed supplier proclaiming 
>that their processing procedure eliminates EPM parasites. 
>
>That's a new angle. Never thought of feed being the delivery agent for EPM. 
>But, come to think of it, there's logic--opossum and bird droppings in grain 
>are not a stretch to envision. 
>
>ti 
>

Three years ago, this point was brought up when I was fighting EPM in my
beautiful, young TB mare.  I was told to make her environment as free from
possible contamination as possible.  I decided after researching the
subject that it was a near impossibility...very wooded area, creeks and
ponds, lots of 'possums, tons of birds...and continuous opportunity to
contaminate the soil, the water, and the feed.  When considering everything
she was being fed, and the inability to control the birds, I could see how
contamination could happen to the bagged feed supplements also.  I don't
know if they've documented contamination via that route since it would be
tough to prove unless they actually isolated the protozoa in the feed
itself.  I'd be interested in how they processed the feed?  High
temperatures?  That, it seems, would do harm to the nutrients while killing
off only one small microcosm of contamination in a world where
contamination is possible in so many different ways.

Sue

sbrown@wamedes.com
Tyee Farm
Marysville, Wa.