GENERAL INFORMATION FOR ANIMAL OWNERS ON THE CURRENT PET FOOD RECALL

The current pet food recall has been very concerning to pet owners and everyone involved in providing for the health and well being of dogs and cats. While there is still an ongoing investigation of potentially contaminated foods, it appears that only a relatively small proportion of the pet food on the market has been implicated and that the recall of many of these products has been precautionary in nature. Commercially prepared diets appropriate for the life-stage of a pet remain the best option for feeding normal, healthy dogs and cats.

The following websites provide up-to-date information about the recall for veterinarians and pet owners, including a link to a listing of all recalled pet food products and instructions for reporting suspect cases and submitting samples:

http://www.avma.org/aa/menufoodsrecall/default.asp http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

The American College of Veterinary Nutrition has issued a statement regarding the safety of commercial pet foods at http://www.acvn.org.

The information below summarizes basic recommendations for concerned pet owners and veterinarians and what is currently known about the recalled pet food-associated kidney disease.

1. Pets should not be fed ANY of the recalled products and should be observed for any changes in behavior or other clinical signs suggestive of acute kidney disease, such as vomiting and increased drinking and urination.

2. Consumer complaints about possibly contaminated pet foods should be referred to the FDA at (913) 752-2440. Complaints about specific pet foods can also be directed to the manufacturers of these products.

3. Owners with dogs or cats suspected of consuming contaminated pet foods should be referred to their veterinarians or to the MU Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital for diagnostic workups of their pets to rule out kidney disease and for appropriate therapy.  Owners with dead dogs or cats suspected of consuming contaminated products should be referred to their veterinarians or, for those living in or around Columbia, to the MU Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory for postmortem examinations of their deceased pets and collection of appropriate tissue samples for microscopic evaluation and possible chemical analyses.

4. Melamine, which is used to manufacture plastics and as a fertilizer and source of nitrogen in animal feeds, is currently considered to be a good “marker” for contaminated foods; however, the actual role of melamine itself or melamine-related compounds in causing the observed kidney disease is still not very well understood. A related compound, cyanuric acid, has also been detected in contaminated products and may interact with melamine.    

5. Crystals containing melamine and cyanuric acid have been detected in the urine and kidneys of some affected animals and might play a role in the development of the observed kidney disease. The unique structure of these crystals, which are apparently soluble in formalin, is preserved best when fixed tissues from deceased animals are processed for microscopic examination within one or two days of formalin fixation or when sections of kidney are fixed in 100% ethanol.

6. Detection of melamine is currently considered a reasonable approach for the identification of contaminated pet foods. Information about melamine testing at two diagnostic laboratories can be found at http://cahfs.ucdavis.edu/ and http://www.animalhealth.msu.edu/.

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