Botulism’s New Threat; Will Horses Have Vaccine?

Botulism is one of the most deadly toxins known to man or beast. During the Persian Gulf War, it was confirmed that Saddam Hussein had imported 39 tons of media capable of growing botulism and anthrax, and it was also learned that Hussein’s nephew had bought a sprayer dryer capable of preserving such organisms. When a terrorist cult in Japan was infiltrated about that time, they were also

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Botulism is one of the most deadly toxins known to man or beast. During the Persian Gulf War, it was confirmed that Saddam Hussein had imported 39 tons of media capable of growing botulism and anthrax, and it was also learned that Hussein’s nephew had bought a sprayer dryer capable of preserving such organisms. When a terrorist cult in Japan was infiltrated about that time, they were also found to have large quantities of botulism toxins.

An interesting part about botulism is that when we were involved in the Persian Gulf War, there was a nearly year-long absence of equine botulism vaccine because the military was taking all production for human vaccines, and there was only one place producing it for horse and human. For months and months, however, horse owners and veterinarians weren’t able to find out the problem with supply. Finally in late June of 1995, the president of Neogen Corporation, which makes the equine botulism vaccine, was able to release the reason for the equine vaccine hold-up–a response to a possible terrorist plot

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Written by:

Kimberly S. Brown is the editor of EquiManagement/EquiManagement.com and the group publisher of the Equine Health Network at Equine Network LLC.

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