Pet Food Recall Spreads, and so Does Confusion

Apr 02, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Elizabeth Weise and Julie Schmit

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 Anying 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, Nestle 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. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.