A recall of dangerous and potentially deadly pet food has dog and cat owners worried. They study their animals with wary eyes and have their veterinarian’s phone number on speed dial looking for real and imaginary symptoms.
The concern was caused by the contamination of an imported wheat gluten used to thicken up gravy in wet dog and cat food. Menu Foods of Canada, the maker of such brands as Eukanuba, Iams, and Ol’Roy, had recently began buying their wheat from a company ChemNutra, who received the wheat gluten from a company in China which is believed to be the source of the contamination.
Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food it produces for sale under nearly 100 brand labels. Purina has also recalled a limited amount of their product. The believed contamination has spread from cuts and gravy style wet food to all forms of wet food and some dry food from the brand Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
It was recently thought that the contamination was caused by a chemical known as aminopterin, a cancer drug also found in rat poison. They found small traces of the drug but not enough to determine this as the cause of contamination.
Federal testing of the recalled pet food now confirms the presence of melamine, a chemical used to make kitchenware and other plastics. It is a contaminant and byproduct of several pesticides and is sometimes used in fertilizer across Asia. Melamine is toxic only in very high doses and has been found to cause bladder tumors in rats according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
A veterinarians’ information service reported 104 animal deaths. Menu Foods has confirmed only 16 deaths caused by contamination. Veterinarians say it is hard to determine the deaths as being caused by the contaminated pet food.
The contamination has harmed mostly cats because they’re smaller and cannot handle as much of the toxin as most dogs. Cornell scientists have been researching the problem and have found traces of melamine, the suspected contaminant, in the urine of sick cats and in the kidneys of a cat that had died from eating the contaminated food.
Spokeswoman for the American Veterinary Medical Association, J.B. Hancock tells pet owners to be on the lookout for lethargy, diarrhea, increased or decreased urination and thirst, vomiting, and lack of appetite as symptoms that an animal might be sick and might have kidney failure.
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. The FDA has ruled out the possibility that any of the contaminated wheat had gotten into any human foods.