linda040899
06-09-2007, 10:38 AM
Cross posted from Bird Breeder-Hobbyist:
Texas lab finds pain medicine in pet food
By Karen Roebuck
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating
a Texas laboratory's finding of acetaminophen in dog
and cat food, an agency spokesman said Monday.
"We're very interested in being able to test these
samples ourselves to determine the levels of those
contaminants," said FDA spokesman Doug Arbesfeld.
"What's significant is these things are there. They
don't belong there."
The pain medication is the fifth contaminant found in
pet foods during the past 2 1/2 months and can be
toxic or lethal to pets, especially cats. It is not
known if any animals became sick with acetaminophen
poisoning, or died from it.
"We were looking for cyanuric acid and melamine, and
the acetaminophen just popped up," Donna Coneley, lab
operations manager for ExperTox Inc. in Deer Park,
Texas, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review yesterday.
"It definitely was a surprise to find that in several
samples."
At least five dog and cat food samples submitted by
worried pet owners and pet food manufacturers
contained varying levels of the pain reliever, she
said. Only the food, not individual ingredients, were
tested.
The medication was found most often with cyanuric
acid, a chemical used in pool chlorination, Coneley
said. Varying levels of melamine, a chemical used to
make plastics, also were found among the hundreds of
samples ExperTox tested, she said.
The contaminants were found in foods that are not
among the more than 150 brands recalled since March
16, Coneley said. The highest level of acetaminophen
was found in a dog food sample submitted by a
manufacturer, she said. Coneley declined to identify
the company but said its officials were given the
results "well over a month ago."
That company should have -- but did not -- notify the
FDA, which first learned of the acetaminophen findings
after pet owners posted lab reports on the Internet,
Arbesfeld said.
"With any poison, it's the amount that matters." said
Dr. Wilson Rumbeiha, a Michigan State University
pathologist who is working with the FDA on the pet
food contamination investigation. His lab has screened
for acetaminophen but found none, he said.
The highest level of acetaminophen found by the Texas
lab -- 2 milligrams per gram of dog food -- is a large
amount, Rumbeiha said. That is eight times what a
10-pound cat could safely consume, he said.
However, a 20-pound dog would have to eat more than
6.5 pounds of food in 24 hours to be poisoned, unless
it ate the same contaminated food daily, Rumbeiha
said.
A still-unmeasured amount of acetaminophen and
cyanuric acid were found in cat food submitted by Don
Earl, 52, of Port Townsend, Wash., whose 6-year-old
cat, Chuckles, died in January.
He said he was suspicious of two flavors of Chuckles'
Pet Pride food because his other two cats refused to
eat it and because Chuckles, strictly an indoor girl,
had been healthy.
Texas lab finds pain medicine in pet food
By Karen Roebuck
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating
a Texas laboratory's finding of acetaminophen in dog
and cat food, an agency spokesman said Monday.
"We're very interested in being able to test these
samples ourselves to determine the levels of those
contaminants," said FDA spokesman Doug Arbesfeld.
"What's significant is these things are there. They
don't belong there."
The pain medication is the fifth contaminant found in
pet foods during the past 2 1/2 months and can be
toxic or lethal to pets, especially cats. It is not
known if any animals became sick with acetaminophen
poisoning, or died from it.
"We were looking for cyanuric acid and melamine, and
the acetaminophen just popped up," Donna Coneley, lab
operations manager for ExperTox Inc. in Deer Park,
Texas, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review yesterday.
"It definitely was a surprise to find that in several
samples."
At least five dog and cat food samples submitted by
worried pet owners and pet food manufacturers
contained varying levels of the pain reliever, she
said. Only the food, not individual ingredients, were
tested.
The medication was found most often with cyanuric
acid, a chemical used in pool chlorination, Coneley
said. Varying levels of melamine, a chemical used to
make plastics, also were found among the hundreds of
samples ExperTox tested, she said.
The contaminants were found in foods that are not
among the more than 150 brands recalled since March
16, Coneley said. The highest level of acetaminophen
was found in a dog food sample submitted by a
manufacturer, she said. Coneley declined to identify
the company but said its officials were given the
results "well over a month ago."
That company should have -- but did not -- notify the
FDA, which first learned of the acetaminophen findings
after pet owners posted lab reports on the Internet,
Arbesfeld said.
"With any poison, it's the amount that matters." said
Dr. Wilson Rumbeiha, a Michigan State University
pathologist who is working with the FDA on the pet
food contamination investigation. His lab has screened
for acetaminophen but found none, he said.
The highest level of acetaminophen found by the Texas
lab -- 2 milligrams per gram of dog food -- is a large
amount, Rumbeiha said. That is eight times what a
10-pound cat could safely consume, he said.
However, a 20-pound dog would have to eat more than
6.5 pounds of food in 24 hours to be poisoned, unless
it ate the same contaminated food daily, Rumbeiha
said.
A still-unmeasured amount of acetaminophen and
cyanuric acid were found in cat food submitted by Don
Earl, 52, of Port Townsend, Wash., whose 6-year-old
cat, Chuckles, died in January.
He said he was suspicious of two flavors of Chuckles'
Pet Pride food because his other two cats refused to
eat it and because Chuckles, strictly an indoor girl,
had been healthy.