Thread: Pet deaths prompt recall of pet food

Pet deaths prompt recall of pet food
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 16, 6:33 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A major manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other store brands recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food Friday after reports of kidney failure and deaths.

An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, Menu Foods said in announcing the North American recall. Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.

"At this juncture, we're not 100 percent sure what's happened," said Paul Henderson, the company's president and chief executive officer. However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein.

The recall covers the company's "cuts and gravy" style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches between Dec. 3 and March 6 throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Company, Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.

Menu Foods did not immediately provide a full list of brand names and lot numbers covered by the recall, saying they would be posted on its Web site — http://www.menufoods.com/recall — early Saturday. Consumers with questions can call (866) 463-6738.

The company said it manufacturers for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

P&G announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G said.

Menu Foods' three U.S. and one Canadian factory produce more than 1 billion containers of wet pet food a year. The recall covers pet food made at company plants in Emporia, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J., Henderson said.

Henderson said the company received an undisclosed number of owner complaints of vomiting and kidney failure in dogs and cats after they had been fed its products. It has tested its products but not found a cause for the sickness.

"To date, the tests have not indicated any problems with the product," Henderson said.

The company alerted the Food and Drug Administration, which already has inspectors in one of the two plants, Henderson said. The FDA was working to nail down brand names covered by the recall, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said.

Menu Foods is majority owned by the Menu Foods Income Fund, based in Ontario, Canada.

Henderson said the recall would cost the company the Canadian equivalent of $26 million to $34 million.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070316/...ma_0azLfas0NUE

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On the Net:

Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov/

Pet Death Toll Rises in Tainted Food Recall
By Steven Reinberg -- HealthDay Reporter
Tue Mar 20, 7:02 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20070320...sVoPeTNc9a24cA

TUESDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) -- The official pet death toll inched up Tuesday as U.S. health officials continued to look for the contamination source that spurred a massive recall of moist dog and cat food involving some of the top brand names.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so far there have been 14 dogs and cats that died within a few days of consuming the pet food made by a Canadian company.

The toll included nine cats in the manufacturer's quarterly taste test that involved up to 50 animals, along with four pet dogs and one pet cat, according to the FDA's lead veterinarian. However, he added, the toll is expected to rise. "We are reviewing the manufacturing process of [the] food," Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said during a press conference. "We are still looking at the wheat gluten and other ingredients."

Sundlof said the FDA continues to receive a large volume of calls at its consumer complaint lines. The number of calls has not yet been tabulated or evaluated, he said, but "we know that some of them are complaints of deaths."

The cause of the pet deaths has not been determined, although all those that died developed kidney failure after eating the affected product, the FDA said.

The pet food manufacturer, Ontario-based Menu Foods Inc., had suggested the illnesses might be linked to their use of a new supplier of wheat gluten, a protein used in the foods. FDA officials said they weren't sure if wheat gluten is responsible or which company supplied the wheat gluten.

In addition, the agency isn't sure that only pet food was contaminated. "Right now, we don't think people are at risk," Sundlof had said at a Monday teleconference.

Menu Foods announced the recall over the weekend for 60 million packages of moist pet food made at a plant in Emporia, Kan., and another in New Jersey between Dec. 3, 2006, and March 6, 2007.

The FDA is responsible for checking pet food plants, Sundlof said Tuesday. "It is very much the same as how we regulate human food plants," he said. "Inspections are based on how risky we think the plant is based on previous inspection."

David Elder, director of the Office of Enforcement at the FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs, added, "The first time the FDA had been in the Kansas plant was in follow-up to these consumer complaints. The New Jersey plant was inspected last year under FDA's Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [mad cow] program."

The recalled pet food was sold in sealed packets in the United States, Canada and Mexico under 50 brand names of dog food and 40 brand names of cat food.

The brands include Iams, Science Diet, America's Choice, Preferred Pets, Eukanuba, and Nutriplan. The stores that sold them include Ahold USA Inc., Kroger Co., Safeway, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., PetSmart Inc. and Pet Valu Inc. A full list can be seen at the Menu Foods Web site at www.menufoods.com/recall.


Dogs or cats that have eaten the suspect food and show signs of kidney failure should be taken to a veterinarian. According to the FDA, kidney failure in animals is characterized by loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting.

The agency is also requesting that people with sick or deceased pets who believe their pet might have consumed one of the implicated products contact a state complaint coordinator. A list of coordinators can be found at the FDA Web site (http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/complain.html).


The FDA and the Humane Society advise consumers who have any of these products to stop feeding them to their pets.

Menu Foods has a consumer recall hotline at 1-866-895-2708.

The company has announced that it will compensate the owners of pets that died.

For more information on pet food, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfoods.htm

March 16, 2007

Menu Foods Income Fund Announces Precautionary Dog and Cat Food Recall

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - March 16, 2007) -

NOT FOR RELEASE OVER US NEWSWIRE SERVICES

Attention Business/Financial Editors

Menu Foods Income Fund (the "Fund") (TSX:MEW.UN) today announced the precautionary recall of a portion of the dog and cat food it manufactured between December 3, 2006 and March 6, 2007. The recall is limited to "cuts and gravy" style pet food in cans and pouches manufactured at two of the Fund's United States facilities. These products are both manufactured and sold under private-label and are contract-manufactured for some national brands.

Over the past several days, the Fund has received feedback in the United States (none in Canada) raising concerns about pet food manufactured since early December, and its impact on the renal health of the pets consuming the products. Shortly after receipt of the first complaint, the Fund initiated a substantial battery of technical tests, conducted by both internal and external specialists, but has failed to identify any issues with the products in question. The Fund has, however, discovered that timing of the production associated with these complaints, coincides with the introduction of an ingredient from a new supplier. The Fund stopped using this ingredient shortly after this discovery and production since then has been undertaken using ingredients from another source.

At the same time, the Fund's largest customer, for which it manufactures on a contract basis, received a small number of consumer complaints and has initiated its own recall. Furthermore, for the time being, the customer has put future orders for cuts and gravy products on hold. This customer's cuts and gravy purchases in 2006 represented approximately 11% of the Fund's annual revenue.

"We take these complaints very seriously and, while we are still looking for a specific cause, we are acting to err on the side of caution" said Paul K. Henderson, President and CEO, Menu Foods. "We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that our products maintain the very highest quality standards."

While the number of complaints has been relatively small, Menu is taking this proactive step out of an abundance of caution, because the health and well-being of pets is paramount to the Fund.

In addition to changing suppliers, for production after March 6, the Fund has increased testing of all raw materials and finished goods. It is also working closely with regulatory authorities and its customers to learn more and will take whatever additional actions are appropriate. The Fund estimates that based on currently available information, this recall could cost between $30 million and $40 million, which will be financed from a combination of internally generated cash flow and bank credit facilities. Furthermore, the Fund is aggressively producing product, utilizing a different supplier for the ingredient in question, to replenish customers as quickly as possible.

In order to determine whether cat and dog food in their possession is subject to recall, consumers should refer to the list of brand names ("listed products") at www.menufoods.com/recall. This will be available by 6 a.m. Saturday March 17, 2007. Products not identified on the website can continue to be used.

Menu is the leading North American private-label/contract manufacturer of wet pet food products sold by supermarket retailers, mass merchandisers, pet specialty retailers and other retail and wholesale outlets. In 2006, the Fund produced more than one billion containers.

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/Pres...l_03162007.htm

Recalled Cat Product Information
Recall Information 1-866-895-2708
Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
Authority
Best Choice
Companion
Compliments
Demoulas Market Basket
Eukanuba
Fine Feline Cat
Food Lion
Foodtown
Giant Companion
Hannaford
Hill Country Fare
Hy-Vee
Iams
Laura Lynn
Li'l Red
Loving Meals
Meijer's Main Choice
Nutriplan
Nutro Max Gourmet Classics
Nutro Natural Choice
Paws
Pet Pride
Presidents Choice
Price Chopper
Priority US
Save-A-Lot
Schnucks
Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts Cans
Sophistacat
Special Kitty Canada
Special Kitty US
Springfield Prize
Sprout
Stop & Shop Companion
Tops Companion
Wegmans
Weis Total Pet
Western Family US
White Rose
Winn Dixie

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html

Recalled Dog Product Information
Recall Information 1-866-895-2708
Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
Authority
Award
Best Choice
Big Bet
Big Red
Bloom
Wegmans Bruiser
Cadillac
Companion
Demoulas Market Basket
Eukanuba
Food Lion
Giant Companion
Great Choice
Hannaford
Hill Country Fare
Hy-Vee
Iams
Laura Lynn
Loving Meals
Meijers Main Choice
Mighty Dog Pouch
Mixables
Nutriplan
Nutro Max
Nutro Natural Choice
Nutro Ultra
Nutro
Ol'Roy Canada
Ol'Roy US
Paws
Pet Essentials
Pet Pride - Good n Meaty
Presidents Choice
Price Chopper
Priority Canada
Priority US
Publix
Roche Brothers
Save-A-Lot
Schnucks
Shep Dog
Springsfield Prize
Sprout
Stater Brothers
Stop & Shop Companion
Tops Companion
Weis Total Pet
Western Family US
White Rose
Winn Dixie
Your Pet

http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html

Thanks freeby4me, this article has more details


It is tainted with rat poison?
If someone is poisoning are poor pets, are we far behind?
By MARK JOHNSON

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Rat poison was found in the pet food suspected of causing kidney failure that killed at least 16 cats and dogs, but scientists still don't know how it got there, state officials said Friday.

The toxin was identified as aminopterin, which is used to kill rats in some countries, state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker said.

Aminopterin is not registered for killing rodents in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, though it is used as a cancer drug. State officials wouldn't speculate on how the toxin got into Menu Foods' now-recalled pet food but said no criminal investigations had been launched.

Scientists at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell and at the New York State Food Laboratory tested three cat food samples provided by Menu Foods and found Aminopterin in two of them. Hooker said they would be testing individual components of the pet food, as well.


"Any amount of this product is too much in food," he said.

Aminopterin, also used as a cancer drug, is highly toxic in high doses. It inhibits the growth of malignant cells and suppresses the immune system. In dogs and cats, it can cause kidney failure, according to Donald Smith, dean of Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration has said the investigation in the pet deaths was focusing on wheat gluten in the pet food. Wheat gluten itself would not cause kidney failure, but the common ingredient could have been contaminated, the FDA said.

The pet deaths led to a recall of 60 million cans and pouches of pet food produced by Menu Foods and sold throughout North America under 95 brand names. There have been several reports of kidney failure in pets that ate the recalled brands, and the company has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog.

Menu Foods last week recalled "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food. The recall sparked concern among pet owners across North America. It includes food sold under store brands carried by Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other large retailers, as well as private labels such as Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.


(AP) Julie Benesh hugs her cat Truffle during a visit to a veterinarian after the 17-year-old domestic...
Full Image


The company's chief executive and president said Menu Foods delayed announcing the recall until it could confirm that the animals had eaten its product before dying. Two earlier complaints from consumers whose cats had died involved animals that lived outside or had access to a garage, which left open the possibility they had been poisoned by something other than contaminated food, he said.

Menu Foods planned a media teleconference for later Friday, a spokesman said. The company is majority owned by Menu Foods Income Fund of Streetsville. The company also makes foods for zoo cats, but those products are unaffected by the recall.

A spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he was not aware of any criminal investigation involving the tainted food. FBI spokesman Paul Holstein in Albany said Friday he was not aware of any FBI involvement in the case.

"I don't know where we'll go from here," he said.

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was posted online by Menu Foods and is available at . The company also designated two phone numbers that pet owners could call for information: (866) 463-6738 and (866) 895-2708.http://tinyurl.com/2pn6mm

New York State is home to two laboratories that are part of federal emergency lab networks, created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to keep the nation's animals and food supply safe.

The New York State Food Laboratory is part of the Federal Food Emergency Response Network and is capable of running a number of toxin tests on food, including the test that identified aminopterin.

---

Associated Press writer Andrew Bridges in Washington contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

FDA pet food recall information: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

Menu Foods: http://tinyurl.com/2pn6mm

Pet food recall expands to new wet brand
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 31, 10:02 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The recall of wet and dry pet foods contaminated with a chemical found in plastics and pesticides expanded Saturday to include a new brand even as investigators were puzzled why the substance would kill dogs and cats.

Nestle Purina PetCare Co. said it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes. Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from China.

The same U.S. supplier also provided wheat gluten, a protein source, to a Canadian company, Menu Foods, which this month recalled 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food it produces for sale under nearly 100 brand labels.

Menu Foods and the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the pet food industry, have refused to identify the company that supplied the contaminated wheat gluten.

Hill's Pet Nutrition said late Friday that its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food included the tainted wheat gluten. The FDA said the source was the same unidentified company. Hill's, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co., is so far the only company to recall any dry pet food.

Federal testing of some recalled pet foods and the wheat gluten used in their production turned up the chemical melamine. Melamine is used to make kitchenware and other plastics. It is both a contaminant and byproduct of several pesticides, including cyromazine, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Melamine is toxic only in very high doses and has been shown in rats to produce bladder tumors, according to the EPA.

The federal pet food testing failed to confirm the presence of aminopterin, a cancer drug also used as rat poison, the FDA said. Cornell University scientists also found melamine in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating some of the recalled food.

Earlier, the New York State Food Laboratory identified aminopterin as the likely culprit in the pet food. But the FDA said it could not confirm that finding, nor have researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey when they looked at tissue samples taken from dead cats.

Experts at the University of Guelph in Canada detected aminopterin in some samples of the recalled pet food, but only in very small percentages.

"Biologically, that means nothing. It wouldn't do anything," said Grant Maxie, a veterinary pathologist at the university. "This is a puzzle."

The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food.

Menu Foods announced the recall this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the company's products.

An FDA official allowed that it was not immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit. The agency's investigation continues, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Menu Foods said the only certainty was that imported wheat gluten was the likely source of the deadly contamination, even if the actual contaminant remained in doubt.

"The important point today is that the source of the adulteration has been identified and removed from our system," said Paul Henderson, Menu Foods chief executive officer and president. Henderson suggested his company would pursue legal action against the supplier.

About 70 percent of the wheat gluten used in the United States for human and pet food is imported from the European Union and Asia, according to the Pet Food Institute, an industry group.

One veterinarian suggested the international sourcing of ingredients would force the U.S. "to come to grips with a reality we had not appreciated."

"When you change from getting an ingredient from the supplier down the road to a supplier from around the globe, maybe the methods and practices that were effective in one situation need to be changed," said Tony Buffington, a professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State University.

Sundlof said the agency may change how it regulates the pet food industry.

"In this case, we're going to have to look at this after the dust settles and determine if there is something from a regulatory standpoint that we could have done differently to prevent this incident from occurring," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/...et_food_recall
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On the Net:

Nestle Purina PetCare Co.: http://www.purina.com

Hill's Pet Nutrition: http://www.hillspet.com/

Menu Foods: http://menufoods.com/recall/


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Cats fare worse in food contamination
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 39 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - A greater sensitivity of cats to a chemical found in plastics and pesticides could explain why they've died in larger numbers than have dogs after eating contaminated pet food, experts said Saturday.

The small number of confirmed reports of pet deaths bolstered by a far larger number of unconfirmed anecdotal reports suggests cats were more susceptible to poisoning by the chemical melamine that tainted the now recalled pet food, officials with the Food and Drug Administration and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Saturday.

"I am concerned we have a situation where we have a sensitive species and it is the cat," said Steven Hansen, a veterinary toxicologist and director of the ASPCA's Animal Poison Control center in Urbana, Ill.

Testing by the FDA and Cornell University has found melamine in samples of recalled pet food as well as in crystal form in the urine and kidney tissue of dead cats. They've also found the chemical, in apparently raw form in concentrations as high as 6.6 percent, in wheat gluten used as ingredient of the recalled cat and dog foods, said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's chief veterinarian.

"There was a sizable amount of melamine. You could see crystals in the wheat gluten," Sundlof told The Associated Press.

Sundlof and others have not been able to explain why the chemical would have caused the kidney failure seen so far in the roughly 16 confirmed pet deaths, all but one in cats. There are anecdotal reports of hundreds more pet deaths.

"It has a very low toxicity, at least in rodents. The problem is, we don't have information in cats, and that seems to be the most susceptible species," Sundlof said of melamine. Sundlof also allowed that the tainted cat foods could have contained higher concentrations of melamine than did the dog foods.

Nestle Purina PetCare Co. said Saturday it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes. Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from China.

Earlier this month, Menu Foods became the first pet food manufacturer to recall its products. It did so after cats began to fall sick and die during routine company taste tests of its wet-style pet foods, sold under nearly 100 store- and major-label brands across North America. Other than in the recalled products, melamine has not been found in other Menu Foods pet foods, the company said.

Melamine is used to make plastic kitchenware, glues, countertops, fabrics, fertilizers and flame retardants. It also is both a contaminant and byproduct of several pesticides, including cyromazine, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The United Nations Environment Program considers melamine of low potential risk, as does the EPA. The agency has sent FDA the database information it has on the chemical and will provide technical assistance as needed, EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said Saturday.

Sundlof said the FDA hadn't found any studies of melamine in cats, and the results of only a single 1945 study that tested it on dogs. That study suggested the chemical increased urine output when fed to dogs in large amounts.

"That was pretty much it," Sundlof said.

Still, it's well known that identical substances can have very different effects on cats and dogs. For example, the flea killer permethrin is OK to use on dogs but lethal to cats, Hansen said. The same could be the case with melamine.

"Cats are very sensitive to many different chemicals, whether drugs, pesticides or plants. We certainly know they have some unique physiological responses that make them susceptible in cases where we wouldn't expect it in other species," Hansen said.

The investigation has traced the melamine to wheat gluten that Menu Foods, Nestle Purina PetCare Co. and Hill's Pet Nutrition bought from an unnamed U.S. supplier. The latter two companies have recalled a limited number of products since Friday. The wheat gluten, a protein source, was imported from China.

Sundlof said the recall could expand further, depending whether other pet food manufacturers also bought wheat gluten from the same supplier.

"We're still in the process of tracing it at this point," Sundlof said. There is no indication the wheat gluten entered the human food supply, he added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070401/...EpDNyPBrhH2ocA

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On the Net:

Menu Foods: http://menufoods.com/recall/

FDA: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2007

Company Recalls Single Product, Prescription Diet m/d Feline Dry Food

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today notified Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc., of Topeka, Kansas, that FDA testing has detected melamine and melamine byproducts in wheat gluten received by the company to make dry cat food. FDA is conducting an investigation into pet food products made with wheat gluten that contains melamine and their association with reports of injury and deaths in cats and dogs.

Because the cat food is sold exclusively through veterinarians, Hill's has notified veterinarians, and is voluntarily recalling the pet food containing the wheat gluten and will conduct its own testing.

Consumers who have any bags of Prescription Diet m/d Feline should discontinue use. They should speak with their veterinarian if their pet shows any signs of kidney/renal illness. Such signs include loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting.

"FDA recognizes that pets are very important to the American people and our sympathies go out to those who have lost their beloved pets," said Stephen Sundlof, D.V.M., director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine, Food and Drug Administration.

During two months in early 2007, Hill's Pet Nutrition manufactured Prescription Diet m/d Feline using wheat gluten from the same company that has supplied wheat gluten to Menu Foods, Inc. Menu Foods, Inc. (menufoods.com/recall) has also voluntarily recalled products potentially contaminated with melamine. See http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html for more information on the pet food recall.

The Hill’s cat food now being recalled is labeled Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry food. The products are:

4 lb. bag, U.S. & Canada UPC code 52742 42770
10 lb. bag, U.S. & Canada UPC code 52742 42790

The agency is continuing to work with Menu Foods, Inc., and Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc., to ensure the effectiveness of their recalls.

For more information, consumers may contact Hills Pet Nutrition at 1-800-445-5777 or visit http://www.HillsPet.com.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01599.html


Media Inquiries: Michael Herndon / Catherine McDermott 301-827-6242
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

Dog, cat treats added to recalled pet food list!!!!!
By Associated Press

Del Monte Pet Products has become the latest company to voluntarily recall some of its brands. They include Jerky Treats Beef Flavor Dog Snacks and Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken Flavor Cat Treats.

Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food in recent weeks after animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products.

Menu Foods has confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog. Some anecdotal figures suggest that many more may have died.

A greater sensitivity of cats to a chemical found in plastics and pesticides could explain why they've died in larger numbers than have dogs after eating contaminated pet food, experts said Saturday.

The small number of confirmed reports of pet deaths bolstered by a far larger number of unconfirmed anecdotal reports suggests cats were more susceptible to poisoning by the chemical melamine that tainted the now recalled pet food, officials with the Food and Drug Administration and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Saturday. "I am concerned we have a situation where we have a sensitive species and it is the cat," said Steven Hansen, a veterinary toxicologist and director of the ASPCA's Animal Poison Control center in Urbana, Ill.

Testing by the FDA and Cornell University has found melamine in samples of recalled pet food as well as in crystal form in the urine and kidney tissue of dead cats. They've also found the chemical, in apparently raw form in concentrations as high as 6.6 percent, in wheat gluten used as ingredient of the recalled cat and dog foods, said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's chief veterinarian. "There was a sizable amount of melamine. You could see crystals in the wheat gluten," Sundlof told The Associated Press.

Sundlof and others have not been able to explain why the chemical would have caused the kidney failure seen so far in the roughly 16 confirmed pet deaths, all but one in cats. There are anecdotal reports of hundreds more pet deaths. "It has a very low toxicity, at least in rodents. The problem is, we don't have information in cats, and that seems to be the most susceptible species," Sundlof said of melamine. Sundlof also allowed that the tainted cat foods could have contained higher concentrations of melamine than did the dog foods.

Earlier this month, Menu Foods became the first of three pet food manufacturers to recall its products. It did so after cats began to fall sick and die during routine company taste tests of its wet-style pet foods, sold under nearly 100 store- and major-label brands across North America. Other than in the recalled products, melamine has not been found in other Menu Foods pet foods, the company said.

Melamine is used to make plastic kitchenware, glues, countertops, fabrics, fertilizers and flame retardants. It also is both a contaminant and byproduct of several pesticides, including cyromazine, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The United Nations Environment Program considers melamine of low potential risk, as does the EPA. The agency has sent FDA the database information it has on the chemical and will provide technical assistance as needed, EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said Saturday.

Sundlof said the FDA hadn't found any studies of melamine in cats, and the results of only a single 1945 study that tested it on dogs. That study suggested the chemical increased urine output when fed to dogs in large amounts. "That was pretty much it," Sundlof said.

Still, it's well known that identical substances can have very different effects on cats and dogs. For example, the flea killer permethrin is OK to use on dogs but lethal to cats, Hansen said. The same could be the case with melamine. "Cats are very sensitive to many different chemicals, whether drugs, pesticides or plants. We certainly know they have some unique physiological responses that make them susceptible in cases where we wouldn't expect it in other species," Hansen said.

The investigation has traced the melamine to wheat gluten that Menu Foods, Nestle Purina PetCare Co. and Hill's Pet Nutrition bought from an unnamed U.S. supplier. The latter two companies have recalled a limited number of products since Friday. The wheat gluten, a protein source, was imported from China.

Sundlof said the recall could expand further, depending whether other pet food manufacturers also bought wheat gluten from the same supplier. "We're still in the process of tracing it at this point," Sundlof said. There is no indication the wheat gluten entered the human food supply, he added.

www.katu.com/news/national/6818087.html

Pet owners likely to get little in suits
By MARK JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Apr 1, 1:33 PM ET

ALBANY, N.Y. - Pet owners are not likely to get much compensation if they individually sue pet food-maker Menu Foods over the death of a dog or cat, although they might fare better if they joined forces in a class action suit, legal experts say.

Most state laws consider animals — even beloved pets — to be only personal property. That means that even for the loss of a faithful family companion, a successful civil lawsuit would not likely produce much reward, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. "With animals, all you get is the value of the property," he said. "There are no emotional damages."

In early March, Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of its "cuts and gravy" style wet pet foods, sold under nearly 100 store labels and major brands across North America. It did so after cats fell sick and died during routine company taste tests.

It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received more than 8,000 complaints while the company has fielded 300,000 calls from consumers. The company has only confirmed the deaths of 15 cats and one dog. There is no central database tracking pet deaths in the United States.

Numerous pet owners around the country have sued or are considering legal action against Menu Foods. Some are seeking class action status. "I would love to find an attorney to take on this company," said Brenda Hitchcock of Tampa, Fla. Hitchcock said she racked up $4,000 in veterinarian bills trying to save her 5-year-old cat "S.S." to no avail. She said she still has two pouches of the recalled food to prove her case.

Ontario-based Menu Foods has taken a low-key approach to the recall, expressing concern for people who have lost pets and offering to pay veterinary bills if a pet's illness or death can be directly linked to the food, but admitting no wrongdoing.

Jack Hall, a product liability lawyer from Pittsburgh, said the owner of a dog or cat used for breeding or of a specially trained animal could argue for higher compensation on the basis of lost potential earnings.

Hall said pet owners would fare better if they joined in a class action suit. "I would think this kind of case would allow itself to a class action. That could work for somebody here," he said.

Still, Tobias said even a class-action suit could be tricky. "The factual variations in the cases will make it very difficult to form a class action," he said. "Will people have the proof they need to trace the harm done to the animal back to Menu Foods?"

Dog and cat food sales in the United States reached over $14.3 billion in 2005, according to the Pet Food Institute that represents manufacturers of commercial pet food.

On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said recalled pet foods contained melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, but that its tests failed to confirm the presence of a rat poison, aminopterin, reported by the New York State Food Laboratory. The FDA said it also found melamine in wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the wet-style products. Still, it was not immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit in the deaths. "We are angered that a source outside the company has adulterated our product," Menu Foods Chief Executive Paul Henderson said Friday.

Nestle Purina PetCare Co. said Saturday it was recalling all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes. Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a contaminated wheat gluten from China.

Henderson insisted his company's products are safe and undergo the "highest levels" of testing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070401/...recall_legal_2
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On the Net:

Menu Foods recall: http://www.menufoods.com/recall/index.html

Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov/

Tainted food may have hurt 39,000 pets
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
Mon Apr 9, 8:06 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical may have sickened or killed 39,000 cats and dogs nationwide, based on an extrapolation from data released Monday by one of the nation's largest chains of veterinary hospitals.

Banfield, The Pet Hospital, said an analysis of its database, compiled from records collected by its more than 615 veterinary hospitals, suggests that three out of every 10,000 cats and dogs that ate the pet food contaminated with melamine developed kidney failure. There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase, when compared with background rates.

"It has meaning, when you see a peak like that. We see so many pets here, and it coincided with the recall period," said veterinarian Hugh Lewis, who oversees the mining of Banfield's database to do clinical studies. The chain continues to share its data with the

Food and Drug Administration.

FDA officials previously have said the database compiled by the huge veterinary practice would probably provide the most authoritative picture of the harm done by the tainted cat and dog food.

From its findings, Banfield officials calculated an incidence rate of .03 percent for pets, although there was no discernible uptick among dogs. That suggests the contamination was overwhelming toxic to cats, Lewis said. That is in line with what other experts have said previously.

At least six pet food companies have recalled products made with imported Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical. The recall involved about 1 percent of the overall U.S. pet food supply.

Measuring the tainted food's impact on animal health has proved an elusive goal. Previous estimates have ranged from the FDA's admittedly low tally of roughly 16 confirmed deaths to the more than 3,000 unconfirmed cases logged by one Web site.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070410/...y3MNaxEaJh24cA
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On the Net: Banfield, The Pet Hospital: http://www.banfield.net/