Posted on 03/20/2007 6:24:16 AM PDT by Wolfie
Tests by Pet Food Maker Killed 7 Animals Before Recall
Of the 10 cats and dogs whose deaths have been linked to pet food that was recalled over the weekend, seven died in a test that the manufacturer began administering last month, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
The company, Menu Foods of Streetsville, Ontario, started testing its product on 40 to 50 animals on Feb. 27, one week after it began hearing from owners who said the food had made their pets ill, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the agency’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.
The company alerted the F.D.A. to its findings last week, and the agency has since opened a full investigation, Dr. Sundlof said. All the animals that ultimately died had begun showing signs of kidney failure, the agency said.
In addition to those seven tested animals, at least three pets have died after eating contaminated food, Dr. Sundlof said, and the number is expected to rise as officials work to confirm the precise number.
Menu Foods manufactures products for brand names like Eukanuba, Iams, Science Diet and Nutro Natural Choice, as well as some store brands for companies including Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie, Hannaford and Price Chopper. The full list is available from Menu Foods at www.menufoods.com/recall.
More than 60 million cans and pouches of the company’s wet-style food have been recalled. The F.D.A. is focusing on wheat gluten, a protein used as filler in the food’s manufacture, as the likely source of contamination. Menu Foods and Dr. Sundlof said the illnesses had coincided with the timing of the company’s use of a new wheat gluten supplier.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
NAFTA at work.
Now they are`nt certain that only pet foods may be contaminated.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20070320/hl_hsn/petdeathtollrisesintaintedfoodrecall
And I read another article that said the source of the wheat gluten Menu Foods used came from the US.
They don't seem to have mentioned, or IDed the "contaminant". Have they done that?
"They don't seem to have mentioned, or IDed the "contaminant". Have they done that?"
Not yet.
Thanks. It looks like some potent biotoxin contamination, that happened after the gluten was extracted.
-PJ
The most probablr thing is some biological growth on the gluten during storage.
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