This was posted on one of my dog lists. The poster gives permission to
repost.........

More pet foods have been added to the recall. Please read below.


Diamond Foods Recall Added To :

Just an FYI... Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul - ALL FORMULAS -
has been added to the Diamond dog food recall. Please feel free to
crosspost.

Diamond Pet Food Recall
1/4/06 11:53am ET - Update From AnimalHelp:

Despite claims that the brands below are the only brands affected, We
have received feedback from pet owners who have recently fed both Cosco
"Kirkland"
brand pet foods and Chicken Soup Brand Dog Food, whose pets have exhibited
the same
symptoms as noted with Diamond Brands and the aflatoxin contamination.

**Please be aware that while these animals had all the same symptoms of
aflatoxin illness the test results have not been completed yet and it will
be a short time
before we know for sure whether their deaths were caused by the food.
There
are other illnesses and diseases that cause liver failure and may be to
blame.
But because the foods
these animals were eating are all made by Diamond, and the symptoms are
the
same, we want to warn you to be on the lookout for similar illness in your
animals until we know for sure.

Sadly, a 2 year old Skye Terrier died Monday January 2nd, 2006. He was
eating Chicken Soup brand food and displayed the symptoms of aflatoxin
illness before
he died. The other dogs in this household are also sick. Liver profiles,
toxicology
screenings and pathology results are pending.

Also, a cat death has occured on Tuesday January 3rd, 2006 in SC. This
cat was eating Cosco brand cat food and displayed the symptoms of
aflatoxin
illness. Pathology results are pending on this cat. We know of one
other cat
who almost died from the same symptoms of aflatoxin illness and also was
being fed Cosco brand cat food.

Cosco's Kirkland Brand pet foods are made by Schell & Kampeter, who also
make the Diamond Products. Chicken Soup is considered one of their super
premium
food, and they also make Nutra Nuggets. Cosco Kirkland is made at one or
more of the
Diamond plants.

If you feed your pet Cosco brands - or ANY other pet food brands (it is
possible that other
store brands are made at Diamond plants) - and see illness and symptoms as
mentioned
here, we urge you to get your pet to your veterinarian immediately for a
liver profile.

We expect the Chicken Soup brands and the Cosco brands will be added to
the official recall very soon if the test results from these two recent
deaths
provide proof that cause of death resulted from ingestion of aflatoxin in
the food. We will keep you up to date if any changes are announced.

Because of testing conducted by officials in North Carolina, Diamond Pet
Foods has added Diamond Professional for Adult Dogs to the list of
recalled
products
manufactured in our Gaston, S.C. facility and distributed in the
eastern U.S.

The product, Diamond Professional for Adult Dogs, contains a "Best By"
date of January 29, 2007.

Testing performed by the North Carolina agriculture department showed a
single bag of the product contained high levels of aflatoxin. The product
was
discontinued in August of this year.

According to Mark Brinkmann, chief operations officer for Diamond Pet
Foods, the company will continue working closely with state officials and
will not
hesitate to take action if testing warrants.

Customers should return any unused product to their retailers and should
consult their
veterinarian if pets show any signs of illness. Complete information
can be
found at
www.diamondpet.com, or by calling the Diamond Pet Foods Customer
Information Center toll-free at 1-866-214-6945.

What products are being recalled? Recalled products can be identified
by the
Date Code and "Best By" dates listed on the back panel of the package.
Recalled products will have a capital "G" (in reference to Gaston) in
the 11th or
12th position of the date code (18 lb. to 55 lb. bags), and "Best By"
dates
between March 1, 2007 and June 10, 2007. The capital "G" will be in the
9th
position on smaller 4 lb. to 8 lb. bags.

Diamond's quantitative analysis records substantiate that shipments were
definitively clear of aflatoxin after December 10. As such, "Best By
11-June-07" date codes
or later are not affected. Also, products with "Best By" dates prior to
28-Feb-07 are safe.

Products manufactured at our Gaston S.C. facility included in the recall:

Diamond Premium Adult Dog Food
Diamond Hi-Energy Dog Food
Diamond Maintenance Dog Food
Diamond Professional for Adult Dogs
Diamond Performance Dog Food
Diamond Puppy Food
Diamond Low Fat Dog Food
Diamond Maintenance Cat Food
Diamond Professional Cat Food
Country Value Puppy
Country Value Adult Dog Food
Country Value High Energy Dog Food
Country Value Adult Cat Food
Professional Chicken & Rice Adult Dog Food
Professional Puppy Food
Professional Large-Breed Puppy Food
Professional Reduced Fat Cat Food
Professional Adult Cat Food

"Jinxy" wrote in message
...
This was posted on one of my dog lists. The poster gives permission to
repost.........
More pet foods have been added to the recall. Please read below.
Diamond Foods Recall Added To :

Just an FYI... Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul - ALL FORMULAS -
has been added to the Diamond dog food recall. Please feel free to
crosspost.

Diamond Pet Food Recall
1/4/06 11:53am ET - Update From AnimalHelp:

Despite claims that the brands below are the only brands affected, We
have received feedback from pet owners who have recently fed both Cosco
"Kirkland" brand pet foods and Chicken Soup Brand Dog Food, whose pets
have exhibited
the same symptoms as noted with Diamond Brands and the aflatoxin
contamination.

We expect the Chicken Soup brands and the Cosco brands will be added to
the official recall very soon if the test results from these two recent
deaths provide proof that cause of death resulted from ingestion of
aflatoxin in
the food. We will keep you up to date if any changes are announced.


........This message has been going around like wildfire and it's all FALSE.
Animal Help apparently took this information off their page as it is not
confirmed. Moreover Chicken Soup for the yadda yadda has NO corn in it so I
don't see how the terrier could have died of aflatoxin from CORN. It can
take weeks for an animal to get sick so what they're eating right this
minute may not be the culprit. Whoever Animal Help is, they're not very
helpful. It's NOT helpful to scare people and disseminate falsehoods based
on rumor instead of facts.. Why on earth would the Chicken Soup food be
taken off the shelf if it has no corn in it? Besides they've already tested
this product and I can't think of any reason for the company to lie. This
situation is disastrous enough without giving their customers false
information. They're going to lose a lot of customers over this.
Q & A from the company:
http://www.diamondpetrecall.net/faq.html#6

.......While I realize that the below cannot be verified either, a person on
one of my lists wrote Diamond and asked them about Chicken Soup, etc. and
was specifically worried about cross contamination of the rice from the
corn. This was the response:

Diamonds Response:

Below is a letter we sent to our retailers. This will explain the new
testing. Also cross contimation is not a concern. We also tested all of the
Chicken soup products and other products that do not contain corn and they
were all negative.

January 6, 2006
Dear Retailers:

This is the latest in a series of promised updates to keep you abreast of
developments while honoring our pledge to do what is right on behalf of our
distributors, retailers and customers impacted by our voluntary recall of
certain products in the eastern U.S.

As you may be aware, the recall affected approximately 800,000 bags of
product. We deliberately cast a wide net so we were sure to include all
products and production dates potentially affected by aflatoxin, and also to
ensure retailers had only the freshest products available for sale. This
included recalling product with "Best By" dates one month before and two
months after the first suspected date. Out of an abundance of caution, we
also tested samples of our non-corn containing products produced at the
Gaston facility, including the Premium Edge and Chicken Soup brands, even
though these products are not susceptible to contamination. All testing of
these samples came back negative.

Testing by independent laboratories conducted to-date indicates only a small
percentage of product included in the recall - less than two percent - was
actually contaminated. But like you, knowing the contamination is not
widespread does not bring comfort to us. One bag of contaminated pet food is
one too many, and we are taking aggressive steps to ensure it does not occur
again in the future.

To that end, we have positive developments that will impact you and your
customers:
New testing procedures designed to provide an extra layer of protection by
screening finished product for aflatoxin prior to shipment are being
implemented at each of our facilities. This testing, scheduled to be in
place by next week, is additive to the ingredient testing we already
conduct, and will strengthen our ability to protect the health of customers'
pets.

Sincerely,
Mark Schell

buglady
take out the dog before replying