Dogged Blog

Pet food recall: Saturday night news update, the Christie ' s head explodes edition

• If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.


• If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes information on recalled foods).


• If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.

Our headlines were getting boring, weren't they? Can you believe we write for a living? So I thought I'd lure you in with some violence and gore. But before I get to that...

Don't miss itchmo.com's Ben Huh on Steve Dale's internet (and 720 AM if you're in Chicago) radio show Sunday night at 8 PM Central Time... you can hear it on the web here.

Okay, now that we've gone... er, let's see... 24 hours without a recall... guess what? YES! It's all over! The crisis is behind us. Our pets' food is safe. And so is ours. We can move on.

How do I know? The FDA said so. Now, let me say that I'm abandoning all efforts at journalistic objectivity here and frankly confessing this article made my head explode, and it wasn't pretty. Here, feel my pain:

Despite publicity about tainted shipments from overseas, Dr. David W.K. Acheson said Americans shouldn't fear eating imported foods.

"Consumers should be reassured that the international situation is under control," he said in an interview. "We're now getting on with this proactive strategy."

Acheson, who was named this week to the newly created post of assistant FDA commissioner for food protection, said investigators have made significant progress in tracing the tainted ingredient from China that is believed to have killed cats and dogs in this country and entered other animal feed products.

Note the language: "Believed to have." As if it hadn't been actually physically discovered in the gluten and rice protein, in the food, and in the urine and kidneys of the dead pets. Also, note the use of the phrase "despite publicity," implying this is a hysterical over-reaction to something, rather than a something on its own. How about, "Despite there having been melamine and cyanuric acid in foods imported into this country, people shouldn't fear eating them."

Moving on:

He said that Americans should not worry about serving pet food to their dogs and cats. Over the past seven weeks, the contamination prompted the recall of 150 brands of pet food, forced the quarantine of more than 100,000 hogs and chickens that may have been fed tainted feed and prompted the Chinese to detain one food company's executive.

I feel so reassured.

Acheson said he has begun developing new plans for protecting the nation's food supply from contamination, either through commercial transactions or terrorist acts.

He said the FDA needs more sophisticated computer systems and, perhaps, additional scientists to identify foods that might be at risk for contamination and in need of stricter inspection.

He said he is also studying whether the FDA needs to ask Congress for expanded legal authority, new regulations and more inspectors - potential changes that lawmakers are already considering.

So, these are things that might happen, but haven't yet. So why is it safe now?

"Globalization of food is here. It's here to stay. We need to acknowledge that and make sure food coming to the United States is as safe as we can make it," Acheson said in a telephone interview, one of the first he has conducted since taking on the new post on Tuesday.

I have an idea. I don't want the food coming into our country to be "as safe as we can make it," I want it to be safe. Call me crazy.

Investigators suspect that Chinese suppliers of two pet food ingredients, wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate, spiked them with melamine in order to boost their value. Investigators also believe that the industrial chemical, not approved for use in food, killed at least 16 pets by working in combination with melamine-related compounds.

First of all, those weren't "pets," they were dogs and cats in Menu Foods' test labs. Since anyone paying even remote attention can see there are thousands of dead pets, let's at least go with the AP's "unknown numbers" of dead pets.

Here's where my head exploded:

Acheson said the search for the pet food contaminant is "virtually closed" and investigators have a "very good handle" on its distribution. Government officials say the threat to humans is extremely low.

See? I told you, it's all over.

Inspectors are redirecting their efforts into checking all vegetable protein shipments from China and visiting American importers to test ingredients and make sure the firms know who made them.

But why? It's all over. Everything's safe!

Acheson said hiring more inspectors might help prevent future scares, but the FDA will never have enough manpower to examine all food supplied by 150,000 registered food makers from abroad.

"Right now, we inspect 1 percent of food imports. If we were to inspect 2 percent, would that problem go away? I don't think so," he said.

Nothing like a positive attitude going in. And remember: your cats and dogs were killed and sickened by a scare. A scare that is costing Americans between $2 and $20 MILLION DOLLARS in vet bills.

The government attempts to target the riskiest foods for close monitoring, but the failure to identify wheat gluten for attention suggests that more needs to be done to find the right targets, Acheson said.

Ya think?

Acheson said the FDA wasn't planning to establish a database for collecting reports of injuries to pets, a demand of pet owners that Acheson said veterinarians are considering.

He also questioned whether it would be beneficial to create a system for monitoring the safety of fresh vegetables, similar to one that ground beef producers established after an E. coli outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants in 1993.

Instead, he said, more research is needed to identify points in the food production cycle where contamination is most likely to occur. Then, methods could be developed to prevent problems from arising.

Of course. Good. Don't do anything constructive or proactive or useful. Instead, let's do more research. Excellent.

If you never see me again after tonight, you'll know Gina locked me out of the blog for excessive sarcasm and head explosion. But while she was cuddled up with her adorable new kitten, I had to read that article. I'm just saying.

Is it okay to post a "play nice" warning when bits of my skull and brain are splattered all over the blog?

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Pet food recall: Night shift news and open thread

• If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.


• If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes information on recalled foods).


• If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.

Over 200 posts on the open thread, so I decided not to tempt the blog-breaking gods and create a new one.

First, another recall, via Therese at the PetFoodUSA blog - she also runs thepetfoodlist.com - as well as Kim at petfoodtracker (those two are my new personal pet food dynamic duo):

In a precautionary measure, Chenango Valley has expanded its recall list to include additional foods - even formulas with no wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate - that may have been processed utilizing the same equipment as previously-recalled products.

We have been informed today by Chenango Valley that two production lots of Drs. Foster & Smith Dry Adult Dog Food Lamb & Brown Rice FormulaTM (see below) may have been processed sequentially after another product that has since tested positive for Melamine.

Even though manufacturing equipment is thoroughly cleaned between production runs, and Drs. Foster & Smith Dry Adult Dog Foods do NOT contain ANY wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate, we are participating in this precautionary recall with your dog’s best health at heart.

We know these are upsetting times for pet owners. Please rest assured that no confirmed illness or death has been reported from feeding Drs. Foster & Smith brand foods during any precautionary recall to date.

The release says there were only 1,174 customers affected, all of whom were contacted immediately by email, phone, or snail mail.

I saw some people in the comments asking questions about the ASPCA Poison Control Center suggested treatment protocol for pets in renal failure from eating affected foods. Here's what the press release, which we previously blogged, had to say - emphasis is theirs:

“Patience is the key,” said Dr. Murray, who has successfully treated several animals thus-affected with aggressive fluid therapy at BMAH. “We now understand that we have to bathe these crystals in fluid for as long as possible. With other causes of kidney failure, if there is no improvement in the animal’s condition after a day or two, the prognosis is usually not encouraging.

“In this case, however, when treating animals who have been sickened by eating the contaminated foods, longer-term intravenous fluids may be required —so we would strongly recommend that all veterinarians treating such cases be patient and continue administering fluids longer than they might otherwise, because they can really be life-saving.”

Also note, that is INTRAVENOUS fluids, given in a hospital, not subcutaneous or sub-Q, which can be given at home. This is a serious condition that requires aggressive treatment, and these are the experts.

A shelter in South Carolina is running low on food, because they rely on donations from businesses that are afraid to give food anymore, because they can't be sure it's safe. You might want to check with local shelters and see if any of them need cash or food donations. I know a lot of you have been asking if you can donate money to us at PetConnection and we keep saying no, so do that instead.

The University of Nebraska will test pet food for owners, at $107 per food sample. Info here.

Got anything for us? Email us or post in the comments! And be good blog citizens - if your post doesn't show up, the spam filter caught it, it will be set free later. Do not re-post it or I'll cry. And you know, no crass product promotion, no nastiness, no hate. It's so easy to play nice. Do not make my delete finger sore, I need it to blog.

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Why I love Renee O'Connor and hate my friend KT

I'm trying to be happy for my friend KT. My good, dear friend of many years who went to LA and hung out with Renee O'Connor and now I hate her.

KT went down to southern CA for the Burn Foundation Relay and got to hang out with Renee O'Connor (Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess) and I vented my envy wrote it up, illustrated with 5845687 beautiful photos of Renee that KT took, over on AfterEllen.com:

The Burn Foundation is a charity near and dear to Renee’s heart, and thus to the hearts of all lesbians Xena fans everywhere. At the relay, the Renee O’Connor Fan Club donated more than $850, plus a car expected to fetch around $1200 at auction. Renee praised her fans, and said it wouldn’t be the same without them. (Us. Whatever. Sorry, just typing about Renee makes me all giddy.)

I am trying not to let the fact that KT only knew Renee because of me get to me and not, you know hate her. It's not working.

And I know I could have gone, but the pet food recall story has eaten my life.

I don't want to hate you, KT. It's just... hard.

KT supposedly has a few other photos of Renee that I might be able to add to this post... KT? I love ya. Really. Except for the hatred.

Update: More lovely photos by KT after the jump!

Pet food recall: Mainstream media reports on the numbers

• If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.


• If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes information on recalled foods).


• If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.

The NY Times, LA Times, and Reuters are all reporting around 8,500 reported but unconfirmed deaths of pets from the pet food recall, based on a statement by Michael Rogers at this afternoon's joint FDA/USDA media conference - which I liveblogged here. (I'll update with a link to the official transcript when it's published.)

From Andrew Martin and Ian Austin at the New York Times, "US Investigators Visiting Pet Food Makers":

Federal officials said they have received about 17,000 calls from consumers worried that that their pets ate contaminated feed; of those, about half said their pets had died as a result. However, officials said they have not confirmed the number of deaths. (Fewer than 20 deaths have been confirmed.)

From Abigail Goodman and Don Lee at the LA Times, with the headline "Reports say pet food death toll exceeds 8,000":

Consumers have reported the deaths of as many as 8,500 dogs and cats as a result of tainted pet food, federal officials said Thursday.

In the two months since dead pets led to a massive U.S. pet food recall, the Food and Drug Administration said about half of the calls to its hotline were from owners of deceased cats and dogs.

Officials said the agency has not confirmed those reports, but added that the numbers of allegations likely will increase as it catches up with a backlog of calls reporting sick or dead animals.

The statistics came as the FDA tried to reassure consumers about the food supply for both pets and humans: The pet food recall was expanded; food safety agents were dispatched to U.S. food manufacturers for inspections; and Chinese authorities reportedly detained the head of a Chinese company suspected of shipping contaminated wheat gluten to U.S. pet food suppliers.

Canada-based Menu Foods Income Fund, which first identified a health risk in its products in March, expanded its recall list late Wednesday to include 3 million more cans and pouches of pet food.

Susan Heavey at Reuters reports "U.S. pet food recall widens amid cross-contamination":

A major pet food recall has expanded again as manufacturer Menu Foods Income Fund revealed evidence of cross-contamination by some cat and dog food pulled since March.

About 8,500 complaints of related pet deaths have been reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by Thursday, but the agency said that only 16 deaths of cats and dogs have been confirmed.

Just a reminder: Don't re-post your comments if they don't show up. It means they were caught in our spam filters, for reasons that sometimes surpass all understanding. Just be patient. And remember: We delete hate speech, profanity, and death threats. Play nice or play somewhere else.

Gina's jump-in: I've also got a hair-trigger "delete" finger for comment spammers jumping in to pitch their own magic pet foods, detox herbal nonsense and e-books with dirty little secrets about the pet food industry, all yours for a low, low price. Pitch it elsewhere, vampires.

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Pet food recall: ASPCA toxicologist says need for caution continues

• If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.


• If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes information on recalled foods).


• If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.

What do experts think pet owners should do in the face of expanded pet food recalls, and worries about cross-contamination at pet food manufacturing facilities? Here's from a press release issued around half an hour ago by the ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Center, following the FDA's media conference. All emphasis is the ASPCA's:

“Given the fact that there is new evidence of cross-contamination in ingredients that may have been considered safe prior to this news, we need to be much more aware of where the ingredients in our pets’ food are coming from,” said Dr. Steven Hansen, a board-certified toxicologist and senior vice president with the ASPCA, who manages the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center (APCC), located in its Midwest Office in Urbana, Ill.

“We are strongly recommending that pet parents immediately investigate, via their pet food manufacturer’s Web site or by calling them directly, where the ingredients—specifically protein supplements—are sourced from.”

Given the current situation and until this crisis is resolved, the ASPCA is recommending pets be fed products containing U. S.-sourced protein supplements only.

“The continued expansion of the recall is extremely worrying,” said Dr. Louise Murray, director of medicine at the ASPCA’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital (BMAH) in New York City, and a board-certified internist. “The magnitude of this crisis leaves us frustrated as to how to best protect pets and prevent any more illnesses or deaths.”

Included is advice on the treatment of affected pets; again, all emphasis is theirs:

“Patience is the key,” said Dr. Murray, who has successfully treated several animals thus-affected with aggressive fluid therapy at BMAH. “We now understand that we have to bathe these crystals in fluid for as long as possible. With other causes of kidney failure, if there is no improvement in the animal’s condition after a day or two, the prognosis is usually not encouraging.

“In this case, however, when treating animals who have been sickened by eating the contaminated foods, longer-term intravenous fluids may be required —so we would strongly recommend that all veterinarians treating such cases be patient and continue administering fluids longer than they might otherwise, because they can really be life-saving.”

They also take a crack at the numbers:

Unofficial estimates, including by those in the veterinary community, suggest the number of recall-related deaths may be in the thousands. The pet food recall crisis continues to unfold, with new developments appearing daily, and ramifications at the international trade, business and human health levels. As recently as yesterday, Menu Foods greatly expanded its recall list because of evidence of cross-contamination at plants where the contaminated ingredients were in use.

They conclude, "The ASPCA continues to warn pet parents to stay extremely alert to the situation." Good advice. The complete release is here.

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Pet food recall: Liveblogging 5/3 FDA press conference

• If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.


• If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes information on recalled foods).


• If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.

I am liveblogging today's FDA press telebriefing. They give the topic as "Joint FDA/USDA update on adulterated feed."

Present will be:

--David Acheson, M.D., assistant commissioner for food protection, Office of the Commissioner, FDA
--Captain David Elder, U.S. Public Health Service, director, Office of Enforcement, Office of Regulatory Affairs, FDA
--Julie Zawisza, assistant commissioner for public affairs, Office of the Commissioner, FDA
--Kenneth Petersen, D.V.M., M.P.H., assistant administrator for field operations, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA

As always: I'm doing this live. There will be typos. Anything not in quotation marks is a paraphrase. Just hit refresh periodically to see the info as I update this post.

4:08 PM ET: Telebriefing has not begun yet. Musical accompaniment (note how I avoid trademarked term) is an instrumental version of "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again."

4:12 PM ET: We begin.

Julie Zawisza introduces. Update on contaminated feed. Only one speaker, Dr. David Acheson. Then Q&A with Dr. Petersen from USDA, FDA's Dr. Stephen Sundloff, Michael Rogers, Walter Batts, David Elder.

Dr. Acheson: Says he will go over the recent expanded Menu recall, history of wheat gluten, issues of safety of consuming contaminated food, and update on investigation with China. [The rest is after the jump.]

"Put us all on the same page with wheat gluten." Can go to either pet or human food. "In current investigation," ALL ended up in pet food system. We learned about this whole thing because of sick or dying pets. Once we knew contaminated wheat gluten ended up in pet food supply, we asked did any get into the human chain?

We have done extensive investigation into that system and have found no evidence any of those contaminated lots ended up as an ingredient in human food. Stressed "as an ingredient." None of the contaminated wheat gluten ended up in the human chain.

A portion of the contaminated pet food was incorporated into feed for hogs and poultry, some of which have entered the food supply. Will say more about that later.

Then said "likewise the rice protein concentrate."

Speaking of pet food, Menu foods did expand their recall, will not go into it, referred to their website for more info. Said it's cross-contamination problem. The information on that is posted already.

The human health impact. This has all gone down the pet food side. The only connection is when pet food is used as human food (I think he meant animal feed?). It is extremely unlikely there is a human health effect here. Explains the dilution effect.

When contaminated wheat gluten comes into the country, only 5-8 percent is melamine. Wheat gluten is not an exclusive ingredient of the pet food. Only a small portion of the pet food is then made into animal feed. Once it's gone into the poultry and hogs, a "small portion of the meat on the market will potentially contain very low levels of melamine." But poultry and pork do not eat EXCLUSIVELY poultry and pork.

There is a series of dilution steps. Original contaminated wheat gluten to pet food to animal feed, then the amount of the animals the humans will consume. A dramatic dilution of the contamination, to the point where "we believe the likelihood of a human illness is very remote."

Goes back and says he is not saying people are eating pet food, but the whole process by which it goes to be animal feed then into the human food chain when people eat the meat.

Next point is our proactive strategy.

Two key elements.

Imports: FDA working with customs and border protection has an import alert in place for protein concentrates of vegetable origin from China. They are held at the border and can only enter US commerce when we are condident they are safe to proceed. Preventing further input of contaminated protein concentrates of vegetable origin from China.

Domestic: Investigators are going out to manufacturers who use protein concentrates and raising awareness about supply chain importance, and if they have rec'd ingredients from China that have not been used, make sure they are tested for melamine and melamine compounds. To ensure anything "that is currently in the US is safe to consume."

Few numbers: We have tested approx. 700 samples of finished pet food or the ingredients. Approx. 400 have tested positive. Some have been multiple samples from the same lot. 92 lots total tested positive. All positive samples have come from the two companies we already know about. So far, all the positives have tracked back to companies we're already aware of, that's what all the recalls have been about.

Now, China:

Nothing much to report. We are there, an investigation has begun.

Abigail Goldman, LA Times: Can you confirm an arrest was made in China, and are you holding ingredients labeled "non-food"?

Julie Z: Please direct first question to Chinese law enforcement.

Dr. Acheson: If fraudulently labeled, we won't necessarily know about that.

Abigail: Is that part of what caused the problem here?

Acheson: No. We have no evidence to suggest that is going on.

Boston Globe: Are investigators on the ground in China and seeing use of melamine or related compounds there?

Dr. Acheson: Good question, will investigate.

Joe Johns, CNN: Amount of date you've been able to recover on testing to say with confidence melamine did not reach into the human food chain except for the animals?

Acheson: The investigation of the contaminated pet food has been exhaustive. The investigation continues. Tracing back from sick animals then forward from the contaminated wheat gluten, and hence the host of recalls you have seen. I am confident none of those two contaminated batches have ended up in the human food chain.

Joe Johns: Said wheat gluten went into baby food? Have you looked into baby food?

Acheson: What gluten and RCP go in many directions, but there is no evidence it's ended up in baby food or any other human food as an ingredient.

Randy Schmitt, AP: When talking earlier about sending investigators to look at wheat gluten still in the hands of manufacturers, is that pet or human food?

Acheson: Both.

David Curley, ABC News: You say these contaminated lots didn't go into the human food chain, but this sounds like a standard practice with the Chinese. How do we know this hasn't been going on a long time? And if it's not okay in pet food, why is it okay in human food?

Acheson: Could it have been going on for years? Sure it could. We cannot rule that out. Something was different this time, where the contamination led to sick pets and came to the attention of pet owners and federal authorities. We can speculate why that happened or how long, the bottom line is we don't know.

David Curley: If 3 million chickens have gone into the food supply, why is that okay, but not in pet food?

Acheson: Dilution effect restatement. I'm sparing my wrists and not retyping it.

CNN: Updated poultry numbers?

Ken Petersen: Poultry numbers from Tuesday are still the numbers.

Acheson also reminded ALL the known shipments went into pet food.

Julie Schmitt, USA Today: Can you tell us anything about the SmartPak recall? The product had melamine, but doesn't contain any of the ingredients from China?

David Elder: That product did contain RPC?

Julie Schmitt: No, this is another product, it was just tested last night.

Elder: We believe this is cross-contamination.

Julie Schmitt: 92 positive contaminated lots out of how many?

Acheson: "If it's negative, we're not going to go chasing it down."

CBS News: Any comment on new reports it was common practice for Chinese manufacturers to label food products as non-food products to escape detection?

Acheson: Need to see what Chinese investigation reveals.

Dan from CNN: Cross contamination - what does that mean exactly? Some vets say pets are still dying from food contaminated from cross contamination. Is food left over in a machine enough to kill an animal?

Acheson: It can mean all kind of things. You can get bacteria crossing between raw meat and salad. In this case, the manufacturer thinks there is cross contamination - said they needed to do a recall. Doesn't know how or to what extent.

Dan: But it's enough to cause death in animals, doesn't that mean we should be concerned about small amounts in human foods?

Acheson: Cross contamination doesn't mean it was a small amount. Might have also been caution.

Wall Street Journal: Is there any contaminated pork or poultry on the market currently today?

Petersen: No. The swine farms and poultry farms - the chicken went to slaughter in February. Dilution factors. We have no reason to believe those animals are any risk to the public. Same with swine.

WSJ: I understand you don't think there is a risk, but is there any meat that might have been contaminated by this feed on the market today?

Petersen: No. Recall ruled out.

Chicago Tribune: 394 positive tests, what levels? And is melamine causing animals to fall sick and die, or some other possible cause?

Acheson: Variable levels, between 0.2-8 percent.

Chicago Tribune: Was it the melamine that sickened animals?

Acheson: Toxicity studies indicate melamine is not particularly toxic except in very high doses. Conundrum. Melamine related compounds, such as cyanuric acid - combination with melamine appears to be more toxic than either one alone. Thinking is, greater tendency to form crystals in the kidneys when combined. Current hypothesis is the combination.

Reuters: China investigation - how many investigators, will more go?

Acheson: No, can't say more.

Reuters: Asked about pet death numbers. Knows are not confirmed, but can you update reports?

Sundloff: No new numbers. We are continuing to add more phone calls than we've been able to log. Trying to catch up with backlog. Imagine at next press conference we can update the numbers.

Michael Rogers: Clarify we've received over 17,000 complaints, around 50 percent alleging an animal death.

Acheson: Emphasizes ALLEGE. No proof.

Dow Jones: Back to pork and poultry. Is it "not on the market" because it's been eaten? What about frozen foods?

Petersen: The pet food traceback is winding down. That's how we became aware of pet food making its way into animal food. Investigation is ongoing.

Dow Jones: I want to make sure I'm clear. It's your belief those 3 million chickens have already been consumed. If the meat is tainted, it's already been consumed?

Petersen: There is no evidence of any harm to humans.

NY Times: Current proactive program. If vegetable protein concentrates have veered off in different directions, how do you determine which facilities to visit?

Acheson: Import records, data set... combined with local knowledge.

NYT: How many?

Acheson: Hundreds, but that's a guess.

Baltimore Sun: Found melamine in any other veg protein products? Identified other importers who rec'd tainted imports?

Acheson: Only in US wheat gluten and RCP. Corn gluten was in South Africa. Can we rule it out? No.

Baltimore Sun: Any other importers?

Acheson: Import alert only going several days. But so far only those two.

Japanese media outlet reporter: Asked for more info on import alerts. Are there bans?

(I missed the response.)

Reporter asked if labeling was food/not food.

Acheson: Labeled as wheat gluten, not textiles. Not aware it came into the US mislabled.

Michael Rogers: We only know how shipments were declared entering the US, not leaving China.

Steve Dale: Melamine found as far back as 2006 in pet food - is it possible that this has played a role in companion animal health for a very long time? Longer than pet food recall? I am very ignorant about international trade, but it seems if there is any doubt, why isn't there a ban on these products being imported in the US? Why don't we just stop it until we're certain?

Acheson: Our investigation of imported products involves testing and the other is tracing of where product was used. In terms of testing, some or the product used in 2007 and 2006 was positive for melamine and related compounds. Based on records, prior to point we got positives, where did that product go? It all went into pet food. So if some of the early 2006 samples were positive, we can say based on records, if they were positive, they went into pet foods. And maybe that DID make them sick, but it didn't make them sick in a way we noticed. It is possible it's been making pets sick for a long time, even though it didn't come to our attention.

Says why detention instead of a ban, is to use a filter so everything is examined and only let through when it's okay. Nothing is 100 percent foolproof.

Karen Roebuck: Did any of the contaminated feed go to animals other than chickens or swine, and how many farms are involved? Readers are concerned about the chicken they are using to make homemade pet diets - giving another contaminated product?

Acheson: That's alot of questions. Let me see if I can remember. Cattle. Thank you. Not aware of anything other than hogs and poulty. Numbers of farms, Dr. Petersen?

Petersen: 30 poultry in Indiana, 8 swine in six states. Static. 38 farms total.

Sundloff: No indication pets are more susceptible. We don't understand how this whole syndrome is affecting animals. We don't recommend that pet owners prepare their own pet foods. At least not over a long term. Pet foods are nutritionally balanced to meet all the nutritional needs of the pet. Just feeding chicken is not in the best interest of pets. The veterinary community in general is opposed to homemade diets unless you really know what you're doing, and most people, myself included would not be able to do that.

WaPo: If human food supply, case control study would have been done early on. Has anyone done that in veterinary world so we can get some sense of how much of a dose it takes to get this and how different this is from baseline of renal failure in cats and dogs?

Sundloff: In close contact with AVMA and AAVLD - folks who operate in the animal disease diagnostic laboraties. While there is no similar organization for veterinary medicine, in this case the correlation were so strong, we know what products were causing death and illness, it was a dramatic effect, no need for case control studies.

Some of the concentrations of melamine were very high (in pet food). A lot of people are trying to work on this issue, veterinary organizations, colleges of veterinary medicine, to understand relationship between melamine, cyanuric acid, and some of the other components that we've found in the wheat gluten and RPC. As things go on further we should have a better understanding.

Reporter: How can such a small amount do so much damage? What portion of the pet food is wheat gluten and RCP? Is FDA investigating other contaminants?

Acheson: We talked about a lot of numbers today, and your question illustrates the complexity of this event. The 0.2-8 percent is the melamine content of the wheat gluten. In a sample of wheat gluten was between 0.2-8 percent melamine. Contaminated wheat gluten was used to make the pet food. Those foods were fed to pets. Variable proportions - maybe 5-10 percent of the pet food is wheat gluten. That may be on high end, can get you the specific number later.

Reporter: That still seems like a small amount, are you looking if something else might have caused this?

Acheson: No evidence of anything else caused this. The one thing that had changed was the wheat gluten. Mel and mel compounds is all that has come up. We don't believe the mel alone is the cause of this, but the combination with related compounds. Lot of questions we dont' have answers to as to how that happened or how frequently, or precise concentration needed.

Bloomberg News: Asked about samples tested.

Acheson: "Too many numbers in one press conference."

Bloomberg: Is this a limited problem?

Acheson: To date, yes.

This will be the LAST QUESTION. Guess I won't be asking mine.

Elizabeth Weise, USA Today: Cross-contamination even in products that don't contain wheat gluten or RCP, can we rule that out in other foods than these pet foods?

Acheson: All contaminted wheat gluten and RCP has only gone into pet food. We are always on the lookout for cross-contamination. But none of this went into the human food supply that we're aware of, the question is moot in terms of human food.

EW: No plants that make both human and pet food?

Acheson: Not that we're aware of.

Briefing ends.

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Hey, FDA, here's a tip for you

This is my tip of the day for the FDA, which they might want to consider before tomorrow's media conference:

When a question begins with the phrase "how many," the answer should be in numeric form.

Last night, very very late last night, the USDA published a transcript of Tuesday's media briefing, which I had liveblogged at PetConnection. There was one section I knew I wanted to look at more closely, and I did that here.  Then I carefully re-read the whole thing, and something else grabbed my attention.

First, Miriam (misspelled "Marian" in the transcript as well as my liveblogging) Falco of CNN asked, "Do you know how many people may have consumed chicken products?"

To which David Acheson, the new FDA "food safety czar," replied:

Let me first try to clarify what I meant by the 'don't form a large part of the diet.' I did not mean to imply for that there are not a large number of American consumers eating pork and poultry. That is not what I meant. The contrast to draw here is with a pet who frequently will consume the same sort of food 100 percent. But if you have a contaminated product and it's 100 percent of the pet food, that's a very different scenario from a human consumer in which chicken or pork is just essentially the meat on the side of the plate with the two veggies. That's what I was implying is that poultry typically is not an exclusive nutrient in the human diet.

Realizing, I guess, that he hadn't answered her question in the slightest, he then added, "I'll pass the rest of it, I think, over to Dr. Petersen."

That would be Dr. Kenneth Petersen, the Assistant Administrator for Field Operations with the Food Safety and Inspection Service with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who asked Ms. Falco to repeat her question.  She responded:

The question I had was: how many people may have eaten some of these chicken products? Your press release yesterday was very vague. It was processed. But how much? How many people may have consumed this? You told us about 350 hogs in California and Kansas and Utah, but how many chickens are we talking about? How many people might be out there?

Did you notice all the "how many," "how much" questions in this paragraph? Me too. See if you can find any numeric answers in his reply:

Okay. Well, we have, of course, have to remember we haven't found any evidence to indicate consumption of this is unsafe. Yesterday when we identified the farms of interest, so now we're looking at the farms, and then what was determined was the poultry were fed this feed several months ago. And so, given the short lifespan of chickens when they grow out, those have already gone into the food chain and so we would need to look at what individual plants they may have gone to.

But given those other consumption factors that Dr. Acheson has indicated, that's not a feature of our investigation today. It's trying to find how many people consume chicken from these individual farms. As he indicated, chicken of course is an important part of the American diet; it's not necessarily something that people are going to eat every day and on an ongoing basis. So because we don't see any health issue because of the consumption factors, how many people could have eaten infected chicken – or, not infected, but the chicken that consumed the contaminated feed or even pork that was consumed -- is not the feature of our investigation today.

Lori Adder of the Wall Street Journal didn't have much better luck:

(H)ave you pegged a number to how much the government is expecting to spend on depopulating animals and indemnifying farmers?

Dr. Acheson responded to something else she had asked, then turned the numeric question over to Dr. Petersen again, who responded:

On the financial aspects of the depopulation, that's the Section 32 funds which, of course, as we've suggested, are designed to restore the purchasing power to the farmers, the affected growers, and I don't have, I wish I did today, I don't have a dollar value for you.

Lester Aldrich with Dow Jones News Wireless tried a "how long" question - again, probably wanting some kind of answer in, you know, numeric form. He didn't get it:

Lester Aldrich: Yes. Do you have any sense of how long this has been going on in China? This whole thing seems to be well-known over there, like it's common knowledge. Have we been importing these kinds of products for a long period of time?

DR. ACHESON: This David Acheson at FDA. The truthful answer to your question is that we don't know. Clearly, that is a concern as to whether this has been going on for some period of time, and, if it has, how come it's just surfaced. You could speculate that the reason it just surfaced is for some reason the ratio of the melamine to the melamine-related compounds was different in a couple of batches. That's what triggered the alert here because it made the pets sick and caused a serious examination investigation of the whole system. So I don't know how long this has been going on, but I too have read reports that this is not something that started recently, but as to the facts we don't have them.

Perhaps sensing that the FDA and numbers, not so much, Daniel Goldstein with Bloomberg News tried to mix it up a little asking for some names - something I'd tried a couple of press conferences before, without any luck. He didn't have any, either:

DANIEL GOLDSTEIN: Yes, hi. Just a question on the 38 or so farms in Indiana. Can you tell us who owns those farms? Those are commercial farms, they are contract growers, and who actually they were supplying poultry to?

MODERATOR:   Give us one second, please.

DR. ACHESON:   This is David Acheson.  At this time we are not able to do that because it's part of an ongoing active investigation.

The New York Times got pushy with its "how many" question, and although the answer was vague, and reluctantly given, it was, at least, in the form of a number:

New York Times:   How many plants do you think, do you believe received Chinese protein concentrated vegetable origin exactly?

DR. ACHESON:   At this point I don't have a number on that in terms of the total number of plants.

New York Times: But it's several hundred? Is it just dozens? How many are we talking about, just kind of roughly if you don't have an exact number?

DR. ACHESON:   As I say I don't have an exact number but it could well be in the hundreds. 

At one point I sincerely believed that if this food crisis had hit human food instead of pet food, the response would have been a lot different.

Apparently I was wrong.

Pet food recall: Late night update, open thread

• If you have a sick pet or a question on your pet’s health, call your veterinarian.


• If you’re new to the site, please check out our general information page (includes information on recalled foods).


• If you want to report a sick or deceased pet, click here.

The USDA website just posted a transcript of today's FDA media conference (liveblogged here on PetConnection with a backup link here). This is a section I was particularly interested in seeing again, an exchange with Karen Roebuck (or, as the FDA calls her here, "REPORTER") of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, who has done exemplary work on this story from the beginning:

REPORTER: Hi. Regarding the April 27 import alert, it said that about 750 samples of wheat gluten and products were tested, and 330 were positive for melamine-related compounds. Are those all pet food samples? And have any human food samples in the surveillance to date, I mean even a single one, tested positive? And also, it seems contradictory to say that you have to put down the pigs because they are not safe enough to be slaughtered now and go into the market, but yet it's safe enough not to recall the ones that have already been slaughtered.

MODERATOR: Let's start with Michael Rogers and then maybe we could go to Dr. Sundloff.

MR. ROGERS: I'll comment on the first part of the question. I'm not going to get into the specific numbers. Certainly when this import alert was published those potentially represented the numbers at the time, but this is an ongoing investigation, and we continue to analyze samples and receive additional data that would alter the positives and negatives. Having said that, the import alert, which is detention without physical exam, is a proactive opportunity by the agency to take a look at these vegetable protein products. But it's certainly important to reference that all of the positive samples for rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten have been associated to two primary sources in China.

Did anyone detect an ANSWER in that response? Back to the transcript, and a follow up question from Roebuck:

REPORTER: But were they all pet food, or were any of them in human food?

MR. ROGERS: There is no evidence to suggest that any of the bulk products went to human food manufacturers.

And speaking of transcripts, here's another one, from a report on Anderson Cooper 360 last night:

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FDA says 38 poultry farms in Indiana received contaminated feed from China in early February, and fed it to poultry within days of receiving it. Thirty of the farms raise broiler chickens for people to eat. Eight farms raise chickens for breeding.

The FDA says all of the broilers, which are believed to have eaten feed contaminated with melamine, have since been processed into human food.

The agency adds, the likelihood of illness after eating those chickens is quote, "very low."

When melamine first showed up in tainted pet food, it appeared that this might have been an isolated incident. But Chinese business officials have told the "New York Times" that melamine has been routinely added to various types of animal feed there for years. Why? To make buyers think that the protein levels were higher than they actually were, increasing market value.

So why did melamine suddenly start killing pets? Scientists now say it was combined with another chemical.

ALAN WILDEMAN, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH: Well, I think we've identified what we feel is an important and likely underlying causative agent of why the animals are getting sick.

JOHNS: Scientists from Canada and the U.S. believe they may have unlocked a mystery. They've learned that melamine, combined with another contaminant found in the pet food, cyanuric acid, forms crystals in the kidneys.

WILDEMAN: What we've done is experiments that show, if you take cat urine and you add melamine to it, and cyanuric acid, the crystals will form in the cat urine in a test tube as you're watching them. So it happens within a matter of hours.

JOHNS: It's the crystals that are suspected of killing the pets. The ASPCA has seen a case that suggests that's exactly what happened.

DR. LOUISE MURRAY, ASPCA BERGH MEMORIAL ANIMAL HOSPITAL: We actually had a case recently where the cat's kidneys were completely obstructed. And when we went to surgery, to try to relieve the obstruction, there was no normal stone. Instead, the aortas were completely full of these melamine-type crystal.

JOHNS: And now the pet food investigation has turned into scrutiny of the human food supply.

CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: We see the pet food recall as a warning sign for the government that they need to do more to protect the food supply. It could easily happen to an ingredient used in human food as well.

JOHNS: The FDA has already announced that 6,000 hogs in several states may have eaten tainted pet food and should be destroyed and not put into the human food chain.

Meanwhile, the FDA investigation into China continues. A lawyer for one of the U.S. companies that received tainted wheat gluten from China confirms that his client received a search warrant for documents and computer files that was served last week. And FDA inspectors are expected to head to China to continue the probe.

They're promising an update from their reporter in China for Wednesday's show. I'll post if I get any more information.

David Goldstein at Huffington Post wrote about this afternoon's FDA media conference, in a post provocatively titled "BREAKING: Americans Ate 3 Million Melamine-Tainted Chickens!":

In a conference call with media this afternoon, USDA Assistant Administrator Kenneth Petersen revealed that as many as 3 million chickens, contaminated with melamine from a single Indiana feed mill, have already been slaughtered, distributed and eaten. An additional 100,000 breeder chickens are currently being voluntarily quarantined by farmers.

More here.

Usual nighttime warnings: Please play nice or play somewhere else. We won't tolerate racism or hate speech on this blog, or death threats. And if your post doesn't show up right away, it got caught in our moderation or spam filters. Don't re-post it. Just be patient. I stay up late. Ask anyone.

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Liveblogging FDA 5/1 press conference

I liveblogged the 5/1 FDA press conference on the pet food recall over on PetConnection.com. I am reproducing it here, because a comment to it there is crashing IE6, and we'll probably have to kill the post to fix it.

Announced as being present were:

Captain David Elder, USPHS
Director, Office of Enforcement
Office of  Regulatory Affairs, FDA

David Acheson, MD
Chief Medical  Officer
Center for Food Safety and Applied  Nutrition, FDA

Kenneth Petersen, DVM, MPH
Assistant Administrator for Field Operations
Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA

Also present were Dr. Stephen Sundloff of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, who fielded a few questions, and Walter Batts handling some international questions.

As usual: unless something is in direct quotes, it’s a paraphrase, and there will be typos. I did this live.

Is your pet's food safe yet?

From my column at SFGate.com:

From one to two -- or more -- suspect ingredients, which may or may not be listed on the label. From one manufacturer to many. From a manufacturing period of a few weeks to one of several months, to new worries that it might cover years. An FDA that's at best slow in communicating what it knows and, at worst, more interested in protecting corporations than the public. Does anyone really wonder why pet owner and consumer confidence is shaken?

Do we want to go back to the days of arguing over which pet food gave our pets shinier coats and brighter eyes, instead of worrying about whether they'll destroy their kidneys or trigger an international food safety crisis? Do pet food companies want to regain consumer trust? If so, here are a few suggestions.

Is Your Pet's Food Safe Yet?
Why pet owners are worried, and why that's not likely to change any time soon

Please click and email it around, thanks!