- Hello Jeff - Just heard from an emailer that Heartguard
may contain the contaminates, too. This whole contamination crisis goes
much more deeply than just pet food. Again, we hear more nonsense from
the FDA trying to cover their -----.
-
- The contamination to pet food and livestock feed is MORE
than melamine. There is also a chemcial used in swimming pools. When
the melamine and this chemical combine, the mixture is quite deadly...a
type of binary chemical weapon.
-
- Again, I ask, WHY are we relying on our enemy to feed
us? The FDA wants to try to identify potential 'gaps' in food safety.
Well, one BIG gap is food and food ingredients from China. And that gap
needs to be closed IMMEDIATELY.
-
-
- Patty
-
-
- FDA Insists Feed Poses 'Minimal' Threat To
Humans
- By Kevin Freking
-
- WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal
health investigators suspect that they will find more farms that received
tainted animal feed but stressed Tuesday that the threat to people is minimal.
-
- The investigators are trying to get a handle on just
how much pet food tainted with an industrial chemical called melamine made
its way into products consumed by pets as well as by hogs and chickens.
-
- On Monday, they announced that byproducts from tainted
pet food had been used in chicken feed on some farms in Indiana. A few
days earlier, they said that hog farms in six states might have received
tainted pet food for use as feed.
-
- The pet food in question could be to blame for a wave
of dog and cat deaths in March due to kidney failure. However, Dr. David
Acheson, an assistant commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration,
said the threat level to pets is greater than to livestock or humans.
-
- "It was only a small portion of what the poultry
was fed, and human consumers will only use poultry as a small portion of
their diet," Acheson said.
-
- By contrast, pets often eat the same product exclusively,
he said.
-
- "The dilution factors here are enormous," he
said.
-
- Officials said that as many as 3 million young chickens
out of 9 billion slaughtered annually might have eaten feed that potentially
included an ingredient containing the melamine. They have already been
slaughtered for human consumption, but because there is no evidence that
consumption is unsafe, no recall has been issued.
-
- Acheson said that the investigation tracking contaminated
pet food is complex and sweeping, which is why it could lead to the discovery
of new states that are affected.
-
- "There is a distinct possibility that it will broaden,"
Acheson said. "I'm not saying that it will, but we need to be prepared
for that to happen."
-
- Overall, the FDA has received about 17,000 calls alleging
illness or death of a pet as a result of contaminated food. Of those, about
8,000 were entered into a database. And roughly half of those input into
the database alleged an animal death.
-
- The agency will investigate to determine whether the
deaths are associated with the recalled products.
-
- The pet food scare as well as earlier discoveries of
E. coli in spinach and salmonella in peanut butter has led to concerns
about the safety of the nation's food supply.
-
- The FDA reacted to that concern Tuesday by naming Acheson
as assistant commissioner for food protection. One of his first projects
will be to develop a strategy that identifies potential gaps in the food
safety system and what is necessary to address those gaps.
-
- http://www.theeagle.com/stories/050207/food_20070502055.php
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-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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