Utah feed maker recalls hay cubes after botulism suspected in horse deaths

A southern Utah feed company has issued a voluntary recall of its alfalfa hay cubes after state agriculture officials linked the product to a cluster of horse deaths and illnesses across four states. Laub's Feeding and Cubing, Inc., based in the small town of Beryl, Utah, recalled its Grade A Mini Hay Cubes on November 10 because of possible contamination with Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium responsible for botulism, according to the recall notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration's website.

The recall followed roughly a week of mounting reports to the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, which said it first learned of several sick horses on a single farm, three of which died, before additional cases surfaced across southern Utah, Nevada and Arizona beginning November 2. The state has not yet confirmed that the hay cubes caused the deaths, but it moved quickly to restrict sales while testing proceeds.

What the recall covers

The recalled product is Laub's Grade A Mini Hay Cubes, sold in 1,500-pound totes and in bulk between October 3 and October 31. The company estimates up to 89 tons of the feed may be affected. It was sold directly at two retail points, Paragonah Farm in Paragonah and the Feed Store in St. George, and distributed more broadly across Utah, northern Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, with the possibility that customers resold smaller quantities further downstream. Laub's began contacting known buyers directly on November 3, a week before the recall was formally posted.

Utah inspectors have placed a hold order on remaining stock at the company's facility and collected samples for testing at an FDA laboratory, with results expected sometime this month. The FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, which oversees the safety of animal feed, now lists the hay cubes among its active recalls alongside other recent veterinary product actions, underscoring that the matter has moved from a local farm complaint to a federally tracked food-safety case.

A rare but recurring hazard in horse feed

Botulism in horses is uncommon but well documented, and it is almost always traced to feed. The toxin is produced by spores of Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium that, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes it, can multiply and produce a nerve-attacking toxin under the right conditions, including in improperly cured or stored forage. Horses are considered especially sensitive to the toxin compared with other livestock. The mechanism of concern in baled or cubed hay is typically a small pocket of decaying animal matter, such as a rodent carcass, baled into the forage, which creates an anaerobic environment where the spores can germinate.

The case echoes a widely covered 2022–2023 outbreak in which Manzanola Feeds of Colorado recalled its Top of the Rockies alfalfa cubes after dozens of horses across four states, including at least 20 in Louisiana, died or were euthanized; testing in that episode also confirmed Clostridium botulinum contamination. That earlier outbreak, which the FDA eventually closed out, is the rough template Utah investigators appear to be following: isolate the suspect lots, hold remaining stock, test in a federal lab, and warn owners before the cause is scientifically nailed down.

Who is affected

The immediate population at risk is horse owners, boarding stables and farms in the four-state distribution area who bought hay cubes from Laub's after October 3. Because the product moved through two feed retailers that themselves serve smaller buyers, state officials and reporting from KSL note that the true number of affected animals is still being tallied and could extend beyond the farms that have already reported losses. The company and state have not released a running count of sick or dead horses, saying only that illnesses began on one farm and spread to others in the following days.

Veterinary coverage of the case, including a report from the trade outlet Pet Age, lists the early warning signs horse owners are being told to watch for: muscle weakness or tremors, difficulty swallowing or vocalizing, a limp or "floppy" tail, weak eyelids, labored breathing, colic-like abdominal distension and an inability to urinate. Officials are urging anyone who sees those signs in a horse that has eaten the recalled cubes to call a veterinarian immediately, since early treatment improves the odds of recovery in a disease that otherwise progresses to paralysis.

Reaction and the investigation ahead

Utah State Veterinarian Amanda Price has been the state's public face on the investigation, cautioning that the cause has not been proven even as the recall and hold order went into effect "out of an abundance of caution."

"It's probably terrifying for horse owners. It's just a horrible situation for everybody involved."

Price's statement, reported by Fox 13 in Salt Lake City, also noted that preliminary indications point toward botulism, though she stressed that only completed laboratory results can confirm it. The company's owner, LaDel Laub, told the station the business is cooperating fully with the state's hold order and stop-sale request while awaiting those results.

For now, the practical guidance to affected owners is unchanged regardless of what the lab ultimately finds: do not feed any Laub's hay cubes purchased after October 3. Owners are advised to return unused product to the point of purchase or, if that is not possible, to store it in a sealed container out of the reach of any animals while they wait for instructions from the company or the state. Adverse events involving animal feed can also be reported directly to the FDA, which tracks such complaints as part of its ongoing oversight of commercial feed manufacturers.

With final test results expected before the end of November, the recall is likely to remain an open case for several more weeks. Whether it stays confined to the farms that have already reported losses, or grows the way the 2022 Colorado outbreak eventually did, will depend largely on how widely the affected lots were resold once they left the two retail points named in the recall.