THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240573
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: VIRGINIA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Inspectors from the Virginia Department of Agriculture expanded their search Thursday for a toxin in corn feed that has killed 18 horses.
Inspectors began taking samples of feed from manufacturers and dealers who mix their own feed in the area south of Interstate 64 and east of Interstate 95. The samples will be tested for Fumonisin B1, a mycotoxin that causes leukoencephalomalacia, also called moldy corn poisoning.
Elaine Lidholm, an agriculture department spokeswoman, said there are three or four large manufacturers in the area.
She said the number of dealers that would have to be tested was not yet known.
Owners of the first 17 animals that died in Chesapeake and Suffolk said they bought their corn from a North Carolina dealer.
Tests by North Carolina agriculture officials at two feed dealers in the northeastern section of that state found no problems in the current stock.
In the 18th case, a James City County horse owner said she bought her supplies from a dealer in southeastern Virginia. A federal government laboratory in Iowa found Fumonisin B1 in samples from that dealer. The dealer has removed the suspect corn from his store.
``We are very concerned about moldy corn poisoning in Virginia, so we are sampling feed containing corn manufactured and mixed in southeastern Virginia to determine if a problem exists in other stores,'' said J. Carlton Courter III, commissioner of the agriculture department.
``So far, the problem appears to be confined to this one area of the state and to have affected horses alone, but we are doing additional testing as a precaution.'' Hogs can also get the disease.
Courter said horse owners in southeastern Virginia should not use feed corn until the agriculture department has determined the threat is over. by CNB