WASHINGTON---The federal Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that while they had found that recalled pet foods contained Melamine, a chemical banned in this country and used to make plastics and fertilizer in Asia, they had not detected any rat poison.

The FDA said it had found melamine in samples of cat food manufactured by Menu Foods and said that the chemical had been detected in wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the recalled wet-style products. FDA officials said that that melamine-contaminated wheat gluten had allegedly been shipped to a U.S. company which manufactures dry pet food but they refused to name the company.

Hill's Pet Nutrition recalled its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food, becoming the first manufacturer to recall its dry pet food. The food included wheat gluten from the same supplier that Menu Foods used. The recall didn't involve any other Prescription Diet or Science Diet products, said the company, a division of Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Hills, which is based in Topeka, Kan., said its other products were not affected, and called the recall "precautionary".

The FDA has sent investigators to Menu Foods' plants in Pennsauken, NJ and Emporia, Kan., trying to determine the source of the problem. Much of the tainted food was sold at major store chains including Price Chopper, Safeway, Kroger and Wal-Mart and was sold not only in the U.S., but also in Mexico and Canada.

The federal agency is trying to determine if any of the imported wheat gluten from China was used to make dry pet food.

Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine said that it still had not been determined if melamine was responsible for the mounting death toll of cats and dogs and the those which had incurred renal failure after eating the contaminated food. Over 8,000 complaints have been received by the FDA.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has demanded that Iams and Menu Foods also recall dry food products until they are chemically tested and cleared. PETA officials said they had received numerous complaints and they had sent an urgent letter to the FDA urging the agency to investigate Iams and other companies that sell food supplied by Menu Foods, and to take appropriate actions if the companies knew, yet withheld, information about pet-food contamination. Last week, scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory at Cornell University's College of Medicine said they had identified Aminopterin, a toxic chemical used to kill rats and treat cancer, as a toxin present in cat food samples from Menu Foods.

The toxic chemical was found in two of the three samples tested that were provided by Menu Foods. Menu uses wheat gluten to thicken the gravy in its foods.

However, the FDA said they did not find rat poison in the sample they tested.

Patrick Hooker, commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, Said that "While we have no doubt that Melamine is present in the recalled pet food, there is not enough known data on the mammalian toxicity levels of Melamine to conclude it could cause illness and deaths in cats. With little existing data, many questions still remain as to the connection between the illnesses and what has caused them".

"We stand confident in our finding of Aminopterin and know of at least one other laboratory that has confirmed its presence, the University of Guelph's Animal Health Laboratory in Canada", Hooker said. "Since, neither Aminopterin nor Melamine are compounds that should be found in pet food, it is important for full public disclosure.

Cornell scientists had also found melamine in the urine of sick cats as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating wet food manufactured by Menu Foods.

"We believe the laboratories involved in this investigation should continue to maintain an open forum to definitively identify the one or more agents that are causing the deaths and illnesses of cats and dogs so that they do not enter the animal or human food chain in the future. We are committed to continuing to work closely with FDA and collaborating laboratories in sharing testing protocols and samples to ensure all possibilities are explored with the hope for a timely outcome to this situation."

On March 16, the Canadian company Menu Foods initiated a recall of numerous varieties of dog and cat food that were manufactured at two of its plants in the United States between Dec. 3, 2006 and March 6. The products are both manufactured and sold under private-label and are contract-manufactured for several national brands.

Since the recall, agriculture department food inspectors have contacted all of the organizations that represent retail food and pet food stores to ensure that the stores were aware of the recall and that the recalled products had been removed from store shelves in New York State.

More than 60 million cans of tainted pet food have been recalled.

Some 50 brands of dog food are affected and 40 for cats. There are many flavors and different styles of packaging affected, both cans and pouches. Two of the leaders in pet foods, Iams and Eukanuba, are both affected. They have code dates 6339 through 7073 followed by a plant code of 4197. People with the recalled products are asked to stop using it immediately.

Primarily affected are 13.2-ounce cans of beef cuts and gravy dog food and 3-ounce cans of turkey and gravy cat food. Although officially the death toll of the pet food recall remains at 16 animals-15 cats and one dog---according to a veterinarians' information service, at least 471 cases of pet kidney failure have been reported since March 16 when the nationwide recall of the dog and cat food was announced.

Veterinarians say that thousands of dogs and cats could be affected and say that the scope of the problem is being seriously underreported. According to the Veterinary Information Network website, there have been 104 deaths attributed to the contaminated food and others are still undergoing treatment.

If your pet displays symptoms of vomiting, loss of appetite, lethargy, decreased or increased output of urine, difficulty urinating, more of less frequent urination or increased drinking or decreased drinking, contact your veterinarian immediately.

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates has been posted online by Menu Foods at http://tinyurl.com/2pn6mm or http://www.menufoods.com/recall/ The company has also designated two phone numbers that pet owners can call for information, 866-463-6738 and 866-895-2708.

While wheat gluten is also used in some human foods, FDA officials said it had found no indication that the contaminated ingredient had been used in foods for human consumption. Officials from Menu Foods held a press conference Friday following the announcement of the FDA findings. Paul Henderson, president and CEO of Menu Foods said that while their researchers had identified a "single, toxic compound" in their pet food---aminopterin---other scientists have been unable to validate the findings. He said it was "also brought to our attention that some veterinary experts held the view that aminopterin was inconsistent with what was being observed in dogs and cats".

Now he says there is an entirely different story with the identification of melamine. He said that melamine has been found in the finished product that was the subject of recall but has not been found in other Menu Foods outside of the recall. Menu Foods only manufactures wet pet food.

Henderson said that melamine has been found in the wheat gluten from a new supplier in the United States, who sourced this wheat gluten in China. This is the same ingredient that Menu Foods made reference to in its recall press release of March 16. Melamine has not been found in the wheat gluten that we obtain from our other suppliers, he said.

Menu Foods is continuing to manufacture and distribute pet foods and obviously concerned about the company's sales, Henderson claimed that pet food manufactured by the company after March 6 is "safe and healthy".

"First, it contains no melamine", he says. "Secondly, it contains none of the suspect wheat gluten. Thirdly, all of the testing that has been conducted, including the routine taste tests that were underway prior to the discovery of this problem, have demonstrated that those products not associated with the suspect wheat gluten performed very well and in a manner consistent with historic norms".

"Quite simply, one supplier's product was adulterated with a material that is not part of any known screening procedure for wheat gluten. The important point today is that the source of the adulteration has been identified and removed from our system".

Henderson said that the company was "following up" on "why we were supplied with this kind of product. Hinting that they company is initiating legal action against its suppliers, Henderson said that "for litigation purposes, we cannot elaborate at this time". 3-30-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette