Pet-food contaminant remains unknown [View All]

[PhilipShore]

Source: United Press International

WASHINGTON, April 7 Pet owners want to know the contaminant in the largest pet-food recall in U.S. history, but experts say it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

USA Today reported Saturday that although scientists have one toxic culprit as their primary focus, they are baffled as to how the "fairly non-toxic chemical led to kidney failure in reportedly hundreds or thousands of pets." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told USA Today it had received some 12,000 complaints from worried pet owners, although they are not sure how many pets have been affected because claims have not been investigated yet. They do know at least 15 cats have died but unconfirmed reports are far higher.

First reports of the contaminant mentioned rat poison and more recent reports have turned to melamine, a chemical used in Asia as a fertilizer. It was not known how the melamine got into the wheat gluten exported by a Chinese manufacturer.

It was Procter & Gamble, maker of Iams and Eukanuba, two popular pet foods, which found the melamine; however, the FDA remains unconvinced at this point that there was enough of the melamine to cause death in pets.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/49031.html