Add chickens to the growing list of animals who have eaten feed contaminated with melamine -- one of the two chemicals at the center of the massive pet food recall and linked to the deaths and illnesses of scores of dogs and cats across the country.
The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed chickens on 38 poultry farms in Indiana received feed made with melamine-tainted pet food scraps.
The federal agencies said these unidentified poultry farms received the contaminated feed in early February and gave it to the chickens within days after delivery.
Thirty of those chickens which came from a broiler farm have since been "processed" -- butchered and sold as food, in other words. The remaining eight chickens from a breeder poultry farm are under what the FDA calls a voluntary hold by the owner.
The agencies have not issued a recall of these chickens and say the likelihood of illness from eating them is low.
Just last week, federal authorities quarantined 6,000 hogs in eight states that were given melamine-tainted feed. The Associated Press reported meat from 345 hogs that ate tainted feed apparently entered the market.
This latest discovery about the chickens surfaced during a federal investigation of imported rice protein and wheat gluten, which the FDA has confirmed is tainted with melamine and a second chemical called cyanuric acid.
The FDA says cyanuric acid is used as stabilizer in outdoor swimming pools and hot tubs. Melamine is used in plastics and fertilizer.
"The combination of melamine and cyanuric acid is of concern to human and animal health," said Captain David Elder, director of the FDA's Office of Enforcement Office of Regulatory Affairs. "Melamine, at detected levels, is not a human health concern.
The presence of these tainted ingredients has triggered one of the largest pet food recalls in history. In the past six weeks, 18 companies have recalled more than 5,300 pet food products because they were made with melamine-tainted ingredients imported from China.
Expanded Alert
In related news, the FDA has issued an expanded import alert that allows inspectors to detain vegetable protein products imported from China and believed to be tainted with melamine.
Under this new action, inspectors can detain several products, including wheat gluten, rice gluten, rice protein, corn gluten, soy protein, and Mung Bean.
In recent weeks, there has been an outbreak of cat and dog deaths and illness associated with pet food manufactured with vegetable proteins contaminated with melamine and melamine related compounds, the FDA wrote in its alert. In response to this outbreak, FDA has been conducting an aggressive and intensive investigation ... This has been one of the largest pet food recalls food recalls in history, a recall that continues to expand.
New Figures
Buried in the text of this alert, the FDA also released -- for the first time -- figures associated with this massive recall.
And those figures confirm the crisis is more widespread than the FDA earlier reported.
Consider:
• The FDA says its received more than 17,000 consumer complaints about dogs and cats becoming sick or dying after eating contaminated pet food;
• Its received reports of approximately 1,950 cat deaths and approximately 2,200 dog deaths linked to contaminated pet food;
• Its tested approximately 750 samples of imported wheat gluten and products made with this ingredient. Of those samples, 330 tested positive for melamine and/or melamine-related compounds;
• Its tested approximately 85 samples of rice protein concentrate and products made with that ingredient. Of those samples, 27 tested positive for melamine and/or melamine-related compounds.
The FDA says its still trying to determine how melamine and melamine-related compounds contributed to the pet deaths and illnesses and determine the underlying cause of the contamination.
New Questions
The alert also disclosed information about the FDAs investigation into the pet food recall, which appears to raise as many questions as it answers:
• The melamine-tainted vegetable proteins came from two Chinese firms -- Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd. and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd. There is strong evidence, however, that these firms are not the actual manufacturers (of these ingredients), the FDA says in its report. Moreover, despite many weeks of investigation, it is still unknown who the actual manufacturer or manufacturers of the contaminated products imported from China are.
• All the contaminated wheat gluten has been traced to Xuzhou Anying. The Chinese government, however, says that company purchased its wheat gluten from 25 different manufacturers -- and Xuzhou Anying may just be a supplier. Xuzhou Anying has said it did not manufacturer the tainted wheat gluten shipped to the United States. The company says it received the tainted ingredient from other, unnamed sources;
• The Chinese government said Xuzhou Anying did not declare the contaminated wheat gluten it shipped to the United States as a raw material for feed or food. Instead, it listed the ingredient as a non-food product, which meant it was not subject to mandatory inspection by China;
• FDA officials dont know how widespread the problem of tainted vegetable proteins is in China. The FDA said it does not know which regions of the country may or may not be impacted by the problem, which firms are the major manufacturers and exporters of vegetable proteins to the United States, where these vegetable proteins are grown in China, and what controls are currently in place to prevent against contamination.
The FDA says it has not found melamine in food imported from China for human consumption, but it is now sampling those products as a precaution.
FDA Creates New Position
To respond to increasing problems with U.S. food safety, the FDA today announced the creation of a new position -- Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection.
The FDA appointed Dr. David Acheson to the post.
Acheson is the chief medical officer and director of the Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response at the FDAs Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
In his new role, Acheson will work with FDA product centers and the Office of Regulatory Affairs to coordinate the agencys food safety and defense assignments.
He will also serve as the liaison to the Department of Health and Human Services and other U.S. departments and agencies on food safety and food defense related initiatives.
We've seen a rapid transformation of the food safety system due to advances in production technology, rapid methods of distribution, and the globalization of food sources, said FDA Commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.
Dr. Acheson's wealth of experience, and knowledge of the science behind food protection, will help the agency keep pace with this transformation in order to ensure that the safety and nutritional value of our food supply is second to none."
More about the Pet Food Recall ...
