The Horse | Blister Beetles: Deadly in Horse Hay

This is every bit as dangerous for small furries as it is for horses. Please be very careful if you are feeding alfalfa hay imported from the USA, eg Oxbow, Alfalfa King.

Blister beetles in Alfalfa Hay

The RWAF vet consultant, Richard Saunders, has contacted D Micah Kohles of Oxbow regarding reports of blister beetles in alfalfa hay. He received this reply

Dr. Saunders:



Good day and thanks for the email. As you are aware Oxbow takes the quality of our products very seriously. We have developed a QMS (Quality Management System) that includes specific procedures and steps in our hay quality assurance to evaluate for bugs and other contaminants. All hay is visually inspected and core samples taken upon arrival for a variety of routine testing. Oxbow is unique in that all of our hay is hand sorted and hand packed. This allows for a careful visualize and physical analysis of the hay during which time any foreign material is removed. If we find insects in the hay they are collected and submitted to the University of Nebraska for identification. To date we have never identified any blister beetles in any of our hays.



To answer you other question Oxbow has is grown throughout the central and western United Sates by a network of long term growers. We have worked with this network for decades and that are very well trained on our quality assurance programs and the standards our hay must meet. Please let me know if you have additional questions or concerns. Cheers



Micah





Micah Kohles, DVM, MPA

Director of Technical Services

Oxbow Animal Health

29012 Mill Road

Murdock, NE 68407

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