Toxin in pet food recall identified

Just a reminder - this is Friday - we have 2 more companies to disclose.
Please sign up for Itchmo's recall notices, or keep checking www.itchmo.com
www.petconnection.com or www.howl911.com for updates. There's another
story noted at Pet Connection from Sacramento Bee.
Read it all - another excellent article by the woman who broke the melamine
story
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_503671.html
[..]
Researchers also have identified three other contaminants in the urine and
kidneys of animals sickened or killed after eating the recalled foods,
including cyanuric acid, a chemical commonly used in pool chlorination,
three researchers told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Cyanuric acid is what
most likely sickened pets, one researcher said.
[..]
The Trib learned yesterday that melamine-contaminated feed was fed to
hogs.The FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department
of Food and Agriculture are investigating.

Some animals that are believed to have eaten the contaminated food were
slaughtered and sold as food before authorities learned their feed had been
contaminated, said Nancy Lungren, spokeswoman for the California agriculture
department.

The state quarantined the farm Wednesday, she said.
Yesterday, the urine of some pigs at the 1,500-animal American Hog Farm in
Ceres, Calif., tested positive for melamine, although all appeared healthy,
Lungren said. About half a dozen pigs were put down and researchers at the
University of California-Davis are testing their kidneys, tissues, blood and
other body parts for melamine contamination, she said.
[..]
Researchers in at least three labs found cyanuric acid, amilorine and
amiloride -- all by-products of melamine -- in the crystals of animals'
urine, tissues and kidneys, according to Dr. Brent Hoff, a veterinarian and
clinical toxicologist and pathologist, at the University of Guelph, in
Ontario, Canada; Richard Goldstein, associate professor of medicine at
Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine and a kidney specialist,
and Dr. Thomas Mullaney, acting director of Michigan State University's
Center for Population and Animal Health.

Michigan State's lab so far has found only the amilorine and amiloride, but
Mullaney said he was aware of at least three other labs finding the cyanuric
acid in the animals. The FDA asked labs involved in the pet food recall to
test for the three chemicals. [.]

.........BTW a regular poster (Bernie - a farmer) at PetConx had this figured
out already. Urea + melamine can be added to cattle feed as a source of
(NPN) nonprotein nitrogen. It's slow release - cows have 4 stomachs -
doesn't hurt them (unless overdosed of course) and one of the breakdown
products is cyanide. So all these protein powders were really the
equivalent of cattle feed.

buglady
take out the dog before replying