Thanks Chi Chi.
SHIT!
Now looks like rat poison and melemine MAY NOT be the cause, but Vitamin D.. This story has been nowhere except 1 paper in Canada so far. The FDA has fucked us, and isn't being straight:
is it Vitamin D?
Barking up wrong tree in pet food recall?
Lawyer claims culprit is vitamin D
By ALAN CAIRNS, SUN MEDIA
As the poisoned pet food crisis widened yesterday with the recall of a dry food, a Toronto lawyer leading a $60-million class-action negligence suit against a Guelph company fears scientists might be barking up the wrong tree.
With suspicions in the Menu Foods poisoning shifting from animopterin rat poison to melamine used in Asian fertilizers, lawyer David Himelfarb said suspect food should be "immediately" tested for excessive vitamin D.
Himelfarb said the kidney failure seen in the Menu Foods case is "exactly" the same as symptoms that left a Whitby woman's dog seriously ill in 2005.
The woman, Janet Grixti, alleges in a statement of claim filed in Superior Court of Ontario that her chocolate Labrador Mocha became ill after it was fed Royal Canin pet food with excessive amounts of vitamin D.
10 TIMES NORMAL
"We have taken hundreds of samples of (Royal Canin) food from across the GTA. I can't give you accurate numbers ... but there is an awful lot of (vitamin D) ... some tests have shown more than 10 times the normal amount ... might even be more," said Himelfarb, who is on the class-action case with lawyer Joe Rochon.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received 8,800 complaints of dog and cats deaths or illness.
No corresponding statistics are kept in Canada.
But after receiving 1,000 telephone calls and e-mails from concerned pet owners, Himelfarb suggests that the poisoning tragedy is much bigger than it appears.
"There could be many thousands," Himelfarb said.
Vitamin D is essential to a healthy diet for dogs and cats, Himelfarb said, but excessive amounts cause "total (kidney) failure."
High levels of vitamin premixes are added to dog and cat food to offset vitamin destruction during heating and shelf storage, Grixti alleges in a statement of claim.
While most vitamins break down, vitamin D "remains in full strength," it is alleged.
None of Grixti's allegations have been tested in court. Royal Canin has not filed a statement of defence.
Royal Canin admits excess levels of vitmain D3 led to the recall of seven vet-only products in March 2006, but its web site assures its foods "are safe" and unaffected by the Menu Foods recall.
Meanwhile, scientists still seek answers to the lethal poison which two-weeks ago forced Mississauga-based Menu Foods to recall 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food.
CHINESE WHEAT GLUTEN
Nestle Purina Petcare Co. yesterday recalled batches of American-made Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food it says contains Chinese wheat gluten bought from the same American company which supplied Menu Foods.
Tainted wheat gluten also prompted Hills-Pet Nutrition to recall Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food, the first dry food recall.