NY Times article - Diamond Food:

January 9, 2006
After Recall of Food, Veterinarians at Cornell University Rush to Save
Poisoned Dogs
By MICHELLE YORK
ITHACA, N.Y., Jan. 7 - On Friday morning, when their 4-year-old golden
retriever, Minnie, was near death, Robert and Janice Lugo called in sick to
their jobs, carried Minnie to their car and drove her to a top animal
hospital four hours away.

They were in such a rush that Mr. Lugo left his winter coat back at their
home in Catskill, N.Y. But he took his credit cards, which he figured he
would need to pay for what could be thousands of dollars in veterinary
bills.

It is the Lugos' last-ditch effort to save Minnie from liver disease brought
on, veterinarians said, by pet food contaminated with a stealthy toxin. "She
trusted us, and we fed her poison," Mrs. Lugo said, crying.

On Dec. 20, Diamond Pet Food, a Missouri company that sells its products
internationally, voluntarily recalled 800,000 bags of pet food under several
labels after an investigation. Based on lab tests, company officials believe
that 1 to 3 percent of those bags contain dangerous amounts of aflatoxin, a
poisonous byproduct of a fungus that grows on corn and other crops. When
ingested in high amounts, aflatoxin causes potentially fatal liver disease.
The recall included both cat and dog food, though dogs seem to be
particularly susceptible.

"I'm hoping and praying that we got those bags back," said Mark Brinkmann,
the company's chief operating officer.

But veterinarians at Cornell University Hospital for Animals, which has
become a Northeast hub for dogs believed to be poisoned by the food,
including Minnie, are worried. In the three weeks since the recall,
veterinarians at the hospital in Ithaca have increased their estimate of dog
fatalities so far to 100 nationwide from a handful.

Some pet owners may not have heard of the recall because it was announced
just before the holidays. And aflatoxin poisoning does not always take
effect quickly and can be mistaken for less serious illnesses, so they have
adapted a human protein test to quickly detect the toxin. Veterinarians fear
the number of fatalities could grow to several hundred in the coming months.

"I've never in my life seen anything like this," said Dr. Sharon Center, a
professor of veterinary medicine at Cornell.

The chain of events that led to the poisoning began with poor weather. A
drought in the South left cornfields vulnerable to Aspergillus flavus, a
colorless, odorless fungus that spawns aflatoxin. The contaminated corn came
from one of Diamond's main suppliers in Hilton Head, S.C., Mr. Brinkmann
said. According to Mr. Brinkmann, Diamond routinely tests for aflatoxin, and
an average of one truckload of corn has been rejected nearly every week
because it tested positive for aflatoxin.

But the industry's testing methods are not foolproof, experts said. The
fungus does not grow uniformly throughout the crop, so it may exist in some
parts of the truckload of corn and not others.

On Oct. 11, a contaminated truckload slipped through, Mr. Brinkmann said.
The pet food was processed at a company plant in Gaston, S.C., and sent to a
distributor in Buffalo. From there, the contaminated food was put on store
shelves east of Ohio.

Nearly two months later, several young Labradors at Kresland Kennel, near
Rochester, began showing signs of liver failure, which include fatigue,
vomiting and internal bleeding. Within about a week, three had died. "I had
no idea why," said Susan Patrick, a breeder for 35 years.

Ms. Patrick's veterinarian, Dr. Stuart Gluckman, suggested post-mortem
testing by pathologists at Cornell. In the meantime, an associate at his
practice, Dr. Sara Sanders, was investigating the illness of two golden
retrievers, one of whom later died. The veterinarians realized that both
groups of dogs were being fed Diamond products. A receptionist at the
practice overheard and was concerned because she was also using that brand,
though her dog seemed healthy.

They alerted the state veterinary diagnostic center at Cornell, which tested
the food and found aflatoxin. About two weeks later, the receptionist's dog
died. Ms. Patrick has lost 7 of her 25 dogs and all of the others are still
sick.

"They were dying in my lap," she said.

Once the problem was realized, Cornell experts prepared for the onslaught of
cases. Many cut short holiday plans and are still working long shifts trying
to figure out how to stave off death in the dogs.

There is no antidote. If a human contracted aflatoxin poisoning, which
sometimes occurs in Third World countries, that person would need a liver
transplant. Dr. Center is giving the dogs drugs to sustain them until their
livers can regain some function.

Still, the fatality rate at Cornell is about 70 percent. The dogs that
survive could face lifelong liver complications and a greatly increased risk
of liver cancer.

Dr. Center is fielding calls from concerned veterinarians from the East
Coast, and she fears that many other pets have died at their local animal
hospital or at home without the disease's being diagnosed. The hardest
calls, she said, are from older pet owners, who have lost their main
companion. "They're anguished," she said.

In some cases, it is the owners, not the medicine, who bring comfort to the
dogs. Jane-Marie Law crawled into the large cage that held her standard
poodle, Tavi, to comfort her during her more difficult moments. After three
weeks and nearly $7,500 in bills, Tavi is recovering. Now Ms. Law is helping
the Lugo family. After meeting them on Friday at Cornell, Ms. Law took in
Robert and Janice Lugo.

Diamond, which has never had a similar problem, is also trying to cope, Mr.
Brinkmann said. After the company confirmed the contamination, it set up a
call center and hired 12 veterinarians to answer questions. About 1,000
people a day call in. "They're getting hammered," said Dr. Stan Casteel, a
veterinary professor who is working at the call center.

Diamond has also created an additional level of testing for aflatoxin and it
will reimburse people for their veterinary bills and the cost of their lost
animal in confirmed cases, Mr. Brinkmann said. "If we do the right thing, we
can recover," he said.

On Saturday, Minnie lay in her cage, awake but motionless except for a tail
wag when she saw her owners. "Once in a while, she'll just look at us like
the old Minnie," Mr. Lugo said. "We just want her back."

"Sharon" wrote in message
...
According to Mr. Brinkmann, Diamond routinely tests for aflatoxin, and
an average of one truckload of corn has been rejected nearly every week
because it tested positive for aflatoxin.

But the industry's testing methods are not foolproof, experts said. The
fungus does not grow uniformly throughout the crop, so it may exist in
some
parts of the truckload of corn and not others.

..........It's good to know that they routinely test for aflatoxin. But it's
true that corn loads may be mixed between fields if it's coming out of the
farmer's bin and not directly from the field. The standard way to get corn
samples from trucks is to stick a long hollow tube in the corn. Don't
remember any more how many samples they take, but some parts of the load
could easily be missed.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

"Sharon" wrote in message
...
Diamond has also created an additional level of testing for aflatoxin and
it will reimburse people for their veterinary bills and the cost of their
lost animal in confirmed cases, Mr. Brinkmann said. "If we do the right
thing, we can recover," he said.

I hope that they do stand by this. It would be refreshing to see a feed
company take responsibility and try to make amends for their error (as
opposed to, say, Land o' Lakes...).

Tirya

From:

Don't remember any more how many samples they take, but some parts of
the load could easily be missed.

Are other grains capable of harboring toxins as devastating as
aflatoxin? I've recently started feeding kibble while I'm in school.
and the Diamond problem has me a little spooked. I need to cut costs
temporarily while I'm paying tuition, but I'm wondering if I'd be safer
just feeding chicken HQ's, eggs, and some liver for the next three
months. I thought I'd be better off feeding kibble while time and money
is tight, but now I'm not so sure.

Debbie

"Debbie S" wrote in message
...

Are other grains capable of harboring toxins as devastating as
aflatoxin?

.......The 3 major products in the US that have problems with Aspergillus
flavus (the fungus that produces aflatoxin) are peanuts, corn and cotton
seed. (So I'm wondering about the peanuts grown in the area also - maybe
stock up on peanut butter now before the price goes up!) It can, however,
end up in milk and cheese products also and most other grains. There's a
whole host of fungi and associated mycotoxins for all cereals. Most of the
time they don't cause a problem as their levels are low.

A good synopsis of mycotoxins on corn:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/Corn/corn001.htm
Some interesting history bits here WRT the role of mycotoxins in history
(LSD comes from a fungus):
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty...135/lect11.htm
FAO booklet on mycotoxins:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5036E/X5036E00.htm

Some FDA tolerance levels listed here, though none for pets:
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/plantdisease/g1408.htm

..........In reality there's no way to get away from it as certain tolerances
are allowed in finishing beef also, so levels in meat will probably go up
slightly also, although there are legal limits for this contamination.

........Now here's an interesting discussion of the economic impact of
mycotoxins from 2001. I'd say they need to rethink some of this:

*Losses from mycotoxins in the US are associated with regulatory losses, as
opposed to lowered production, illness, and/or deaths from the effects of
the toxins. This is particularly the case for human food, but increasingly
it has become the case for animal feeds, as strict feed quality control
programs become the norm for large-scale animal production units. The
Stoloff papers from the 1980s infer that there is no aflatoxin-related
toxicity or carcinogenicity in humans in the US (48,49,50). Paul Sundberg of
the National Pork Producers Council (June 2001, personal communication)
stated that swine producers do not recognize on-going losses from aflatoxin,
although they may occur in localized production areas in severely affected
crop years. That there are only a very small number of cases of actual
recognized toxicity to animals in the US is the direct result of our food
safety regulatory system.*

............In the example below only one (composite sample) is taken from a
truckload for testing. You can see that if they miss a pocket of highly
contaminated corn, that the FDA limits could easily be exceeded: And if one
farmer had problems in his bins with mold, all of his loads may have
significant problems.

*Testing corn for aflatoxin in southeast Texas is a considerable expense at
$20 to $30 per test and one test per truckload of 30,000 to 60,000 pounds of
commodity (Fig. 1).*

.....And from the FDA about regulation of pet food in general:
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfoodflier.html
*A GRAS substance is GRAS only for an intended purpose. For example, sodium
aluminosilicate is GRAS as an anticaking agent. It has been purported to
bind mycotoxins and prevent absorption from the intestinal tract but would
not be GRAS for this use.*

.........Hmmmmmmmmm, so I could add an anti-caking agent to the food and call
it good?

From VIN on pet food safety where they say safety level is 5ppb:
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Con...=1&SourceID=30

........From the FDA
www.ngfa.org/toxinsPDF-1.pdf
Blending policy:
They don't permit blending of loads of corn (contaminated with
uncontaminated) to reduce the overall level of contamination, BUT on
occasion has relaxed it's no blending policy in response to outbreaks. HUH?
So i guess there's no way to avoid getting more aflatoxin in the market
place if FDA goes this route. Don't know if they have or not like they did
in 1988: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00208.html

.........Oh and how many dogs has the raw food diet killed again? As you
know, buying it in the bag is not 100% guaranteed risk free. I'd email your
company and ask about their procedures for insuring the corn has acceptable
levels of aflatoxin. Do they test the loads directly at the plant or rely
on buying already tested loads? I'm sort of interested in the answer to
that question WRT Diamond foods also. If they're buying corn destined for
the human market it should already have been tested. If that's the case
here, then it's a matter of getting some loads in that weren't adequately
sampled. In a normal year, normal sampling procedures are probably fine.
In a year where drought has increased the level of Aspergillus in the
fields, probably increased samples are needed per load of corn in the
affected area.

And finally a note from the Pet Food Institute, which is sticking it's head
in the sand on this issue. Don't worry, be happy!
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060109/dcm043.html?.v=66

Cheers
buglady
take out the dog before replying