FDA finds chemical in pet food
Gluten is suspect in probe of deaths
ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The Food and Drug Administration , under pressure from animal activists , pet owners, and Congress , yesterday said it would test all shipments of wheat gluten from China to look for a chemical implicated in a nationwide recall of pet foods.
Lab tests confirmed the presence of melamine in wheat gluten -- the pet food ingredient linked to the food scare -- in wet dog and cat food with gravy made by Menu Foods Ltd. , as well as in the urine and kidneys of cats that ate the tainted food.
Meanwhile, a second manufacturer -- this time of dry cat food -- issued a recall because its Prescription Diet m/d Feline brand used wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. Hill's Pet Nutrition, a division of Colgate-Palmolive said the recall didn't involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products.
The FDA said it does not know whether melamine, a chemical used as a fertilizer and to make plastics , triggered kidney failure that has killed at least 16 pets. But it will analyze samples from daily shipments of wheat gluten from China for signs of it.
Menu Foods Income Fund president Paul Henderson told reporters the company received tainted wheat gluten from a new supplier that obtained it from China. This month, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans and pouches of moist pet food that were sold under 90 brand names. The company said it no longer uses the Chinese supplier that sold it the gluten containing melamine.
"Let me be clear on this: We have removed the problem from our system," Henderson said . "Our products are safe."
The FDA also said yesterday that it had been unable to confirm the presence of a cancer drug also used as rat poison in the tainted pet food. The New York Department of Agriculture reported last week that testing had found the substance aminopterin.
Stephen F. Sundlof , director of the FDA's center for veterinary medicine , said it is unclear whether the suspect wheat gluten was used to produce the Hill's brand food.
"FDA, through this whole process, has been very tight-lipped, to the consternation of state officials," said Howard Vinton , the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources inspector in charge of pet food and commercial feed registration.
Veterinarians in communities such as Danvers , New Bedford, and Oxford reported seven pet deaths caused by kidney failure , Vinton said. One owner saved a label confirming their pet had eaten food that was recalled. At least two other animals in Massachusetts suffered less severe kidney failure and recovered.
The Menu Food products were sold by such retailers as Kroger Co. , PetSmart Inc. , Safeway Inc. , and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Two weeks after the pet food scare surfaced, many details remain mired in mystery. Ontario-based Menu Foods has said its products are linked only to 16 pet deaths, but a veterinarians' information service says it knows of at least 471 cases of pet kidney failure, and the FDA said it has received more than 8,000 complaints. Yesterday, the company acknowledged a flood of 300,000 calls about the situation from throughout North America.
There "could be more" reports of sick or dead pets, Vinton warned, due to the pet food's popularity in the state. He said he happened to be checking pet food labels in the Super Stop & Shop at the South Bay shopping center in Dorchester when the 90 affected brands were pulled.
"They had shopping carts full of products they were pulling off the shelves," he said. "There was a tremendous amount of product that was out there. I couldn't tell you how many pets could be affected."
Donald F. Smith , dean of the Cornell University college of veterinary medicine , told reporters yesterday that Menu Foods contacted it in early March after cats in testing of its product refused to eat. Five days later, about March 12 , the company acknowledged the food was toxic and sent tissue and urine samples from affected animals to Cornell.
Yesterday, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee began probing the FDA's ability to safeguard the nation's pet food supply. In a letter signed by five colleagues, chairman John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, alleges the FDA never inspected the Emporia, Kan., plant where Menu Foods made the tainted food. They demanded a reply within 14 days.
Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com. 