FYI: FDA Announces Millions of Chickens Contaminated with Melamine and Sold to Humans

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FYI - this came from the local Native Nutrition group. I know lots of people who buy chicken from "Mal-Wart" to give to their pets. This is, of course, just one more reason to purchase your food from local and individual farmers that you know!! Or grow your own! Kathrine --original message-- Subject: [nn-c-tx] FYI: FDA Announces Millions of Chickens Contaminated with Melamine and Sold to HumansI'm on a few dog group so this recall has been a major topic. Last week or so the media started reporting about possible contamination in hogs and chickens. Then yesterday someone on a Great Pyr list I'm on posted that she was having problems with the chicken she bought from Wal-Mart. After her dog eating 6# (about 3 days

of feeding) her dog refused to eat it so she switched to a kibble and her dog ate that. She doesn't know if it contaminated but will be returning it because her dog is not a fussy eater and with all the recalls, the following article, and the fact that Wal-Mart does so much buying from China she'd rather be safe then sorry. Anyway this whole thing is getting more and more worrisome because it's become so far reaching. Even more reason to buy local and to ask what the farmer is feeding their animals. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/231055/fda_announces_millions_of_chickens.html FDA Announces Millions of Chickens Contaminated with Melamine and Sold to Humans By S2 Takeaways 2.5 to 3 million chickens possibly contaminated and on the market The effect of melamine on humans not known Despite confirmed contamination, FDA does not plan to recall poultry products The FDA and the US Department of Agriculture announced in a press conference on May 1 that as many as 3 million chickens were fed salvage pet food contaminated with melamine and then sold to processing plants to be rendered for human consumption. Officials giving the press conference were Captain Elder, USPHS,Director, Office of Enforcement;Office of Regulatory Affairs,

FDA; Acheson, MD,Chief Medical Officer;Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, FDA and sen, DVM, MPH Assistant Administrator for Field Operations,Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA. During the press conference they announced that 2.5 to 3 million chickens have been fed the tainted pet food and already sold to the public. They speculated that hundreds of processing plants could have received tainted vegetable protein from China. The FDA says they lack toxicity data on melamine but they said that at this time there are no plans to recall any poultry products. In the last few days they announced that even though their testing had

found that thousands of hogs had tested positive for melamine and 45 people have eaten pork products tainted with melamine they have no plans to recall any pork products. When reporters asked the officials to name the the companies that may have unknowingly produced tainted products the officials refused to give any names, citing their ongoing investigation. While there have been no reports of serious human illness due to eating melamine tainted pork or poultry, the effects of melamine on humans are not known. Reps. D. Dingell, the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak, Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee today sent federal investigators to the West Coast to pursue numerous reports of more extensive melamine contamination of wheat and corn gluten, rice

protein, and vegetable protein. Chinese factory workers have admitted to adding melamine to pet food ingredients shipped from their factories, saying it's common practice and has been done for years. Officials are investigating to find the source of the melamine poisoning crisis. This is the largest pet food contamination incident in recent history. The FDA officials also increased their number of confirmed pet deaths due to pet food spiked with melamine. Previously the FDA acknowledge the deaths of only 16 pets due to the tainted food. Today they have updated that number to 4,150 confirmed or acknowledged pet deaths. Pet owners and veterinarians claim the number is much higher and the number of 'official' pet deaths is expected to grow as the FDA investigation continues. More resources http://www.fda.gov