FDA: Millions of Chickens Fed Contaminated Pet Food

On April 25, the Pet Food Institute (PFI), which represents U.S. pet food manufacturers, asked the U. S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab and the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Andrew von Eschenbach for "swift action to answer questions about how melamine, a substance foreign to pet food, ended up in specific ingredients from China," according to a PFI statement.

On Monday,The New York Timesreported that Chinese producers routinely add melamine to wheat gluten and rice protein in animal feed products to falsely inflate levels of protein.

In interviews with agricultural workers and managers in China, the newspaper reported that animal feed producers have secretly added melamine to their feed for years because, during tests, it appears to be a protein, even though it doesn't add any nutritional benefits.

"Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed," Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine, told theTimes. "I don't know if there's a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says 'don't do it,' so everyone's doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren't they? If there's no accident, there won't be any regulation."

"We don't know if this has been going on in China for a long time," Acheson said during a teleconference Monday. "But I have read reports that this is something that has not started recently," he said.

On Thursday, China banned melamine from its food products, but rejected the charge that the substance caused the U.S. pet deaths, theAssociated Pressreported.

It's not clear how -- or even if -- melamine became fatal in pet food, because it's not believed to be particularly toxic. But U.S. law bans its presence in any form of food, the newspaper said.

The rice protein was imported to the United States by Wilbur-Ellis, an agricultural product importer and distributor. The FDA said it is continuing its investigation of the source of the adulterated pet food, including "tracing products distributed since August 2006 by Wilbur-Ellis throughout the distribution chain."

In their latest statement, the FDA and the USDA said that, as of April 26, they had identified sites in six states where contaminated pet food was received and used in feed given to hogs: California, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah.

On Friday, FDA officials searched the facilities of a pet food manufacturer and one of its suppliers in the continuing probe of the contamination, theAssociated Pressreported.

The officials searched an Emporia, Kan., pet food plant operated by Menu Foods and the Las Vegas offices of ChemNutra Inc., the news service said, citing information supplied by the companies.

Menu Foods made many of the major brands of dog and cat foods that were recalled because of the melamine-contaminated wheat gluten. ChemNutra supplied Menu Foods with the wheat gluten, which was also imported from China but reportedly from a different supplier than the rice protein.

Both companies said they were cooperating with the investigation, theAPsaid.

More information

For more information on pet food, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

SOURCES: May 1, 2007, teleconference with David Acheson, M.D., assistant commissioner for food protection, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Kenneth Peterson, assistant administrator for field operations, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Pet Food Institute (PFI) press release;The New York Times;Associated Press