I added one since I posted it on the FHL because I didn't include my
more recent posts FHL melamine posts to the FML. Sorry. See:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
for searching
and be sure to see
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL919
for information on how the kidney problems occur.
---
There is a shorter link now for the FDA news interview transcript today
which Bill Gruber pointed out to me:
TRANSCRIPT OF MEDIA BRIEFING UPDATE BY FDA AND USDA
REGARDING ADULTERATED ANIMAL FEED
<http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal?contentidonly=true&contentid=2007/05/0134.xml>
Among other things, here are some bullet points:
1. all products claiming to be vegetable protein concentrates from
China are being tested.
2. the testing will expand to imports from elsewhere
3. BOTH the "wheat gluten" (wheat that goes through processing to
remove the starch and concentrate the protein), and what was supposed
to be a rice protein concentrate turned out to be just wheat flour
with melamine
4. the testing may expand to imported wheat flour but since melamine
when added gives falsely high protein readings due increased nitrogen
levels they are concentrating for now on things that claim to have
high protein levels
5. the testing will also include imported fish meal from China
6. the reason the fish were not tested until now was because they had
to create a reasonable way to test (since it was suspected that some
farmed fish would be involved) and because the records of such products
are just now being found at the selling companies
7. some reporters worried about the lack of quality control this may
point to at some purchasing companies which process the foods
8. the two Chinese companies so far implicated have sold to our market
through importers since some time in 2006
9. possible long term kidney effects have to still be studied
10. about half of the quarantined chickens were found safe enough to
allow to be slaughtered, but another 10 million are still under
quarantine
11. there were food animals who made it to slaughter before the
contamination of their food was known but this point it is doubted
that they are likely to have posed a human health risk and unknown
if they might pose a pet health risk
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/http://ferrethealth.org/archive/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 5603]
