Centreville Animal Hospital Newsletter
www.centrevilleanimalhosp.com

Vol. 7 Number 3a Continued...

Menu Foods voluntarily recalled the products after learning of complaints of vomiting and renal failure in dogs and cats following their consumption of product produced between Dec.3, 2006 and March 6, 2007. FDA has been apprised of this action. Following feedings of the product, some cats and dogs refused further feedings, while others exhibited signs of renal failure (signs of renal failure include loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting) and others died from renal failure. Menu Foods has undertaken extensive testing of the products in question, employing both internal and external resources, but to date has been unable to confirm any causal relationship to our product.

Specifically, tests of some affected products have not revealed the cause of sickness, and testing will continue until a better understanding of the facts has been achieved. Menu's products are distributed to supermarkets, pet specialty stores and mass merchandisers across the United States. It can best be identified by reference to the list of products found at www.menufoods.com/recall. Menu Foods is notifying its customers by telephone and mail and is arranging for the return of all recalled products. The products were distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

While the number of complaints has been relatively small, Menu Foods is taking this proactive step out of an abundance of caution, because the health and well-being of pets is paramount to Menu Foods. Consumers with questions may contact Menu Foods at
1-800-551-7392.

Pet Food Recall

Procter & Gamble (P&G) recalled 60 brands of pet food in response to several cases of reported renal failure and death across the United States. The voluntary recall is for wet and dry pet food produced between Dec. 3, 2006, and March 6, 2007. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release on March 16, 2007, to educate consumers and veterinary professionals about the situation, which involves several well-known brand names from Menu Foods Inc ., a contract manufacturer for P&G. Consumers with questions or concerns, can call the company at 1-800-882-1591.

Here's a post I received from a pathologist working on this problem on March 19, 2007.

I haven't managed to get through all the messages yet because the list is quite long and things are a little hectic where I am right now. I just wanted to let you know some of the info I'm privy to about the situation.

Lesions have not been consistent with ethylene glycol or cholecalciferol. We have tested for glycols, including ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, propylene glycol, etc. We've tested for heavy metals, ochratoxin, various other organics, and haven't come up with anything thus far. Other tests are pending.

We don't know for sure which ingredient was the source of the toxin--it's sort of difficult to implicate an ingredient when we don't even know the etiology of the disease yet. Thus far we have done separate testing on food ingredients, packets and cans of food, and tissues from animals that have died. This is a source of great frustration to our laboratory and to my personally, believe me.

I would like to add that my impression thus far is that many animals have ingested the food have remained clinically normal. Some have had elevated BUN ± elevated creat, but others have had no detectable problems at all. Most of the affected animals seem to have ingested large quantities or ingested the food for several days. Also, smaller critters (cats and small dogs) appear to be more likely to be affected--probably eat more per unit body weight than larger dogs.

That's all I have for now, but if we come up with anything I'll let you know. We hope to have more information for vets and pet owners posted to our website tomorrow.

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/
http://diagcenter.vet.cornell.edu/

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