Quote from: "Anna"

Pet food recall spreads, and so does confusion

By Elizabeth Weise and Julie Schmitt, USA TODAY
The exact nature of the contamination that has led to an expanding North American pet food recall and reports of thousands of sick pets is a mystery that's confounding toxicologists.
It's also confusing pet owners who were told two weeks ago that all potentially contaminated food had been recalled only to learn over the weekend that it wasn't so.

Since Friday, three other pet food makers have recalled small amounts of pet treats, more wet dog foods and one dry cat food. They join Menu Foods, which in mid-March recalled more than 60 million cans and pouches of wet dog and cat food.

The contaminant is now believed to be the chemical melamine, which is used in the making of plastics and as a slow-release fertilizer, the Food and Drug Administration says. It was found in wheat gluten imported from China and used by Menu Foods and other makers, the FDA says. But toxicologists question whether it is toxic enough to cause kidney failure in animals.
The FDA has not publicly identified the firm that supplied the contaminated wheat gluten to the USA. But on Friday, the agency issued an import alert — found on its website — saying wheat gluten from the Xuzhou Annoying Biologic Technology Development Co. of Peixian, China, could be detained without inspection until it produced results from "the firm's investigation(s) into the problem of melamine contamination" and documents showing that corrective action had been taken.

Since Friday, the FDA has tracked potentially contaminated wheat gluten shipments to Hill's Pet Nutrition, Nestlé Purina PetCare and Del Monte Pet Products. All three companies issued recalls of various pet food products.

The expanding list has pet owners reeling. "Consumers are now in a panic, and they don't know what to do," says Mark Witriol, co-owner of Pet Food Express, which has 31 stores in the San Francisco area.

Wheat gluten in wet pet foods is largely used as a binding agent. In dry foods, it's used as a cheap source of protein. Wheat gluten is also used in some human foods and is an important component of flour, allowing bread to rise. The contaminated batch of wheat gluten is not believed to have been used in any foods for humans.
Whether other pet food makers may have received wheat gluten with melamine is unclear. The FDA said Friday that it was tracking down companies that may have received contaminated wheat gluten.
A New York state laboratory first said it discovered a rat poison in samples of Menu's recalled pet food on March 23. The FDA's chief veterinarian, Stephen Sundlof, said Friday that the agency's laboratories had not been able to reproduce those findings. A statement from New York agriculture commissioner Patrick Hooker said her agency stands by its findings.

The FDA has registered 14 animal deaths, 13 cats and one dog, officially connected to the recall. By Friday, the agency had received more than 8,800 calls from pet owners but hasn't had time to investigate those reports, Sundlof says.
Though the industry expressed relief that the culprit appears to have been found, toxicologists are baffled. Scientific literature says melamine is not very toxic, says Steven Hansen, a veterinary toxicologist and director of the ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Center in Urbana, Ill.

Levels for the melamine were as high as 6.6% of the wheat gluten, FDA's Sundlof says.

That would mean if a wet pet food contained even 5% wheat gluten, it would have 3,300 parts per million melamine, Hansen says.

But a study on dogs in 1953 fed them 30,000 parts per million of melamine for one year and "nothing happened," says James Popp, president of the Society of Toxicology.

Hansen notes that cats are more sensitive to toxins than dogs.
 

news/nation/2007-04-01-pet-food-recall_N.htm


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I don't think they really know what is causing the kidney failure.  That is what scares me.  And the FDA is STILL tracking down who received the contaminated wheat so guess we can expect more recalls.

Don't know what is in semi-moist things like treats and those burger patty looking things but whatever keeps them semi-moist has always made my dog's feet itch.  They LOVE Pupperoni but will chew feet for days if given any of it.  So for mine, nothing semi-moist ever.  Just real hard cookies, dog biscuits I mean and raw hide and the new formula of Greenies.

But my fav treat is Pup Corm or Crunchin Bones made here in Alabama by Sunshine Co.  I order it from the factory about six at a time of the real large plastic barrels.  It has pretty good ingredients and is like puffed looks like styrofoam but they love it.  And it is very low fat, a big deal for some of mine are porkers.

They do have corn flour and wheat flour in them but also chicken liver.  But at least they are dry and not greasy like many treats.  And mine love lamp ears which smell awful but I let them have them any way as dogs have to chew on something, instinct.

Something tells me that the FDA is working up the nerve to tell us next that this is also in the human food chain.  I sure hope not but don't really see how it could only be in pet food.  Not when it is this massive.  Just something else to worry about!

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