Subscribe to Health UpdatesToxin in Pet Food Added Deliberately
May 03, 2007 05:44 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Contaminated cat and dog food has caused thousands of animal deaths. Evidence suggests Chinese manufacturers routinely add a banned substance to exports.
30 Second Summary
As of April 26, 2,200 dogs and 1,950 cats had died from eating pet food containing gluten and protein products imported from China. The Chinese imports contained melamine, a coal derivative.
Though the addition of melamine to any food product is illegal under U.S. law, the substance is not normally considered toxic. Veterinarians are trying to figure out why the additive was capable of causing kidney failure and death in this instance.
The contamination led to pet stores withdrawing more than 60 million products as part of an ongoing voluntary recall that began in March.
American food safety investigators are now working in China. They have discovered that Chinese suppliers routinely add melamine to animal feed. The additive boosts the level of protein detected in tests, but contains no nutritional value.
Concerned pet owners should contact the AVMA for the latest on the recall.
Though the addition of melamine to any food product is illegal under U.S. law, the substance is not normally considered toxic. Veterinarians are trying to figure out why the additive was capable of causing kidney failure and death in this instance.
The contamination led to pet stores withdrawing more than 60 million products as part of an ongoing voluntary recall that began in March.
American food safety investigators are now working in China. They have discovered that Chinese suppliers routinely add melamine to animal feed. The additive boosts the level of protein detected in tests, but contains no nutritional value.
Concerned pet owners should contact the AVMA for the latest on the recall.
Headline
U.S. investigators believe that Chinese manufacturers added the coal-derivative melamine to their products to boost the protein readings in tests conducted by buyers.
Source: The New York Times
April 3, 2007––The Chinese authorities detained the general manager of one of the companies accused of adding melamine to the wheat gluten sold to U.S. manufacturers.
Source: The International Herald Tribune
Need to Know
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AMVA) publishes an online list of products involved in the recall. The list includes all the "information that has come to the attention of the AVMA, but it is not guaranteed to be complete."
Source: AMVA
Pet-care blog Itchmo carries a regularly updated list of all the foods involved in the recall, listed by animal and food types.
Source: Itchmo
In an effort to ensure safety, retailers are being asked to remove all the recalled brands from sale, regardless of the production date, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA recall was issued on March 17, 2007.
Source: The Food and Drug Administration
The contaminated pet food can damage the kidneys and cause organ failure. The Veterinary Information Network offers advice on renal function testing for owners worried that their pets may have eaten the poisoned food. They are also compiling regular updates on the story.
Source: The Veterinary Information Network
Related Links
Farmers in Utah and Indiana have given melamine-tainted feed to chickens, some of which have already entered the human food supply. Both the department of agriculture and the FDA have said that the risk of illness is "very low."
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
In response to the recall, the New York Times asked pet nutrition experts for their insights: "Products excluded from animal feed can go into pet food––meat and bone meal, nervous system tissue––parts of animals not allowed for anything else … The assumption is that better brands don’t do that, but it’s not verified."
Source: The New York Times
Raw food pet diets––such as BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food)––have become increasingly popular. The thought behind the raw diet is simple: dogs and cats do better on what they ate for millennia before the pet food companies appeared. But many vets are skeptical about the benefits of raw foods.
Source: Dog Owner's Guide
According to PetDiets.com, homemade pet diets are not necessarily superior to commercial pet food, nor is it important for pets to eat bones and raw foods like those they might have eaten in the wild. This is a commercial site offering nutritional advice for a fee from qualified veterinarians.
Source: PetDiets.com
Raw pet food diets may put owners and pets at risk of Salmonella infection, according to a 2003 article that appeared in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association.
Source: The Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association
An abstract of the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association article about the potential dangers of raw diets is available for free, and the full text can be read for a fee.
Source: The Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association
Cats and dogs do not easily contract bacterial infections from raw meat because, like all carnivores, they have shorter digestive tracts than humans. However, there are other risks associated with a raw rood diet––such as splinters from bones––and this page from a qualified vet covers the issues.
Source: Little Big Cat
Background
In April 2006, the FDA played down concerns about the 6,000 hogs destined for human consumption that had eaten feed contaminated with melamine. The melamine in the feed originated at the same Chinese suppliers that sold contaminated wheat gluten to U.S. pet food companies.
Source: The New York Times
The president of Menu Foods, who produced many of the tainted products, has said that his company will compensate owners whose animals became ill through eating the contaminated food.
Source: ABC News
In another incident, at least 100 dogs died in the last weeks of 2005 as a consequence of eating tainted dog food. The products came from a company called Diamond Pet Food, and the poisonous substance was aflatoxin, a chemical produced by fungi.
Source: Eurekalert.org
The FDA issued an alert to all districts on April 27 authorizing the "detention without physical examination of all vegetable protein products from China for animal or human food use." The current pet food recall has been one of the largest in history.
Source: The Food and Drug Administration
Reference Material
Vets and toxicologists are still unsure about the nature of the pet food toxin. The latest theory is that the normally harmless melamine reacted with another substance in the pets’ stomachs that originated from a different source. Together these chemicals could have produced stones large enough to block an animal’s urinary tract. "Like a truck on the 401 sideways" is how one vet puts it.
Source: livescience.com
© 2009 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
