It Isn't Wheat Gluten?

The investigation expands and continues concerning the Pet Food Recall of 2007.

International expansion of the investigation has begun and United States officials have finally been allowed into China. The Chinese government appears to be taking the food health concerns seriously.

China launched a food and drug safety crackdown on Wednesday, following an announcement that authorities detained managers from two companies linked to contaminated pet food that killed dogs and cats in North America.

This article only scratches the surface on the corruption that is present in Chinese bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, state side, it has been discovered that the tainted wheat gluten wasn't really wheat gluten at all.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that the contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China—associated with the deaths of at least 16 dogs and cats and the recall of hundreds of dog and cat food brands—was mislabeled and was really wheat flour contaminated with melamine and melamine-related products.

And now, the animals affected with tainted feed stuffs includes an untold number of catfish.


While there still aren't any official final numbers on how many pets have died from eating the tainted pet foods there is evidence that progress is being made.

In fact, according to Cornell University, one of our patients was found to be the first pet to have traces of melamine in the circulating blood supply as well as in the kidneys.

This is our first and only patient that has received a melamine positive report from the laboratory.

According to various news articles the official number of melamine related pet deaths stands at 16. However, I cannot confirm this number at either of the AVMA or FDA websites.


My boss, Dr. Tina Neel, writes a bi-monthly article for The Daily Oklahoman. Her articles can be found in the "YOU" section of the paper and are also available online.

She also has a recent NewsOk podcast about the pet food recall.

(By the way, she was recovering from a severe case of laryngitis when she made this podcast. In fact, she had just gotten her voice back.)


At this time, scientists still seem to be fairly confident that there are not any melamine-related risks to humans.

However, some of you may be interested in reading a South African study summary about melamine crystalluria (crystals in the urine) in sheep that was reported in 1966.


It looks like melamine has been around for a very, very long time.


And the idea of using it in animal feed has been too.


Now I wonder who was thinking that melamine could possibly be beneficial as food.


And since it is a chemical without any obvious nutritional value or benefits...


It makes me wonder why they thought it was a good idea in the first place.


later...




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The Pet Food Recall Expands... Again.

FDA Announces: Melamine in Tainted Pet Foods...

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