WASHINGTON, April 1, 2007
Why Is Tainted Food Killing More Cats?
Pet Food Contaminant Believed To Be More Deadly To Felines
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Play CBS Video Video Pet Food Probe The FDA says the cause of the pet deaths was not rat poison in their food manufactured by Menu Foods. Officials are working around the clock for a plausible explanation. Sharyn Alfonsi reports.
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Video FDA Researching Pet Deaths The FDA's Director for Veterinary Medicine, Stephen Sundlof, says melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, was found in tainted pet food but that it may not have caused dozens of pets' deaths.
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Video Signs Your Pet May Be Sick Officials now say rat poison contaminated pet food, which has been blamed for killing at least 16 cats and dogs. Dr. Debbye Turner speaks with Harry Smith about how you can tell if your pet is sick.
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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. (CBS/The Early Show)
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Peggy Britt-Vidal checks the shelves after returning cans of pet food in Miami, Florida. (Getty Images)
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Veterinarian Michael Fusco at the Adams Veterinary Clinic in Miami checks Bella, March 19, 2007, after her owner brought her in fearing the canine was fed a tainted brand of pet food. (GETTY)
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Daniel Rogan, 12, holds up a picture of his late 9-month-old kitten Snowball. (AP/Boston Herald, David Goldman)
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In The Spotlight Pet Planet Learn more about caring for your pet and see some wacky video.
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 said.
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.Check out the FDA's pet food guide
"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.
Emergency vet Dr. Benjamin Davidson said finding melamine is not solid proof of what killed the pets.
"We know the compound is present, but there is no cause-and-effect relationship. We don't know that 'Yes, this is the compound that is definitely causing the renal disease,'" Davidson told CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.
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.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 21 CommentsHOWEVER, do report it. It sounds like you will need a urine sample or a renal sample to prove a pet food involvement to the authorities.
I spent a good half hour or so at my local Petco looking at the food. Is there any food out there without gluten in it? I bought them some with corn gluten, not wheat, so they are safe from this, but I really don't want to be feeding my cats corn.
I have seen more filth and disease in my fellow humans than I have in cats and dogs."
Posted by erasmus6
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If humans licked themselves off every 5 minutes, as cats do, we'd be clean and healthy too.
I have seen more filth and disease in my fellow humans than I have in cats and dogs.
http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=3
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Read about what goes into pet food, regardless if it is made by Purina, Menu Foods, or any of the other mass producers. In particular, read the section about animal protein and rendering. The FDA has found pentobarbitol in pet foods from euthanized animals. Companies also use sick, dying and diseased animals in dog food. Most people just don't know about it, and maybe don't care until something like this happens. In the January issue of The Whole Dog Journal there was an article about manufacturers of pet foods. There are smaller manufacturers who apparently do a better job. We, the consuming public, have a right to know where our pet food is being made so that we can make our preferences known.
Remember the old saying:" Dog and husband missing: REWARD for the DOG!"..Hey! You better BELIEVE this is FRONT PAGE NEWS! If I need to feed my group Homemade casseroles, I'll get exhausted and just DO IT, instead of trusting their well-beings to a bunch of nit-wits in charge of what they eat!
Signed,
"FURIOUS IN NC"
The key to making healthy food at home for your pet is using All Natural Organic meats and Veggies.
Our foods used to be healthy for us until all the pesticides, antibiotics, and harsh chemicals. Now it will be only a matter of time before the recall of human foods due to mass death from unhealthy contaminated foods.
It disgusts me that in order to "pay less" The health of ourselves and our pets is being put at risk.
Are you not worth the little extra money spent in order to eat healthy non contaminated foods?
I think you are, and I whole heartedly feel if you have chosen to take on a pet then it's life is in your hands, so treat it well. I'm definitely not saying pet owners are to blame for the deaths of their pets by feeding their pets these foods. I'm simply saying we need to all wake up! We humans are eating healthier why not feed our little ones better too.
No one wants to loose a pet, and I am so happy that when the recall happened my little dog did not get sick and die. My heart goes out to those who are dealing with a loss right now.
Amy Rosebrock
Posted by erasmus6 at 06:54 PM : Mar 31, 2007
I have often wondered why people choose to become pack leaders to other species considering the filth and disease these animals produce or carry, not to mention the expense.
I think you've just given me the reason. They don't relate effectively to other humans.
G-R-E-E-D!
China doesn't give a squat about people and this goes to show that we should be watching Asian food imports.
Bush's government protecting us again - NOT!
OUR FOOD SHOULD NOT COME FROM CHINA!!!!!!!!
Now if we were to feed them our food without all the c-r-a-p in it, it would probably be better than the food these companies are putting out. First we would have to know what their specific needs are.
I think the reason alot of us humans have turned to animals for companionship is that we have found that human companionship is sadly lacking. I find that most humans I come across are very selfish and self-absorbed, very sad. I will take the companionship of my cats, over a human, any day.
Obviously, the pets are too good to eat the scraps from the human's dinners as they used to.
Another thing I am trying to understand is why has it taken so long for Purina and Hill's Prescription Diet to recall their food? Do these people not know where they get their supplies from? I bet if ALL pet food was tested we would find all sorts of c-r-a-p in them that wasn't supposed to be there.
Also if the wheat gluten is in our food, it would be slowly poisoning us and we wouldn't know it for who knows how long. The difference between us and our pets is that they are smaller and eat the same food everyday whereas we wouldn't be eating the same thing everyday and therefore would take a lot longer to show up. In fact how much of our food comes from China? And hmmmm I wonder what's in it? For that matter I wonder what is in the food that comes from any other countries?
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