Too many things to report on today... I am sorry for sending so many pieces of mail. Many thanks to Sydney who sent this for me to share: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_503671.html A few snippets: BEGIN QUOTES Karen Roebuck TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, April 20, 2007 ... Researchers also have identified three other contaminants... including cyanuric acid, a chemical commonly used in pool chlorination, three researchers told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Cyanuric acid is what most likely sickened pets, one researcher said. [Later in the article it says that these are by-products from the melamine.] ... tested positive for melamine, although all appeared healthy, Lungren said. About half a dozen pigs were put down and researchers at the University of California-Davis are testing their kidneys, tissues, blood and other body parts for melamine contamination, she said. The contaminated feed was bought April 3 and 13 as salvage pet food ... Researchers isolated a spoke-like crystal in pet food, wheat gluten and in the urine, kidneys and tissues of infected animals. That crystal serves as a marker for determining what animals were sickened in the outbreak. About 30 percent of those crystals are made up of melamine, one investigator said, and researchers spent several weeks trying to identify what is in the remainder. ... Finding cyanuric acid is the more significant finding, Hoff, Goldstein and Mullaney said, although they are not yet certain how toxic it is to animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site said, "When ingested (by humans) in large amounts, the substance may have effects on the kidneys, resulting in tissue lesions." END QUOTES You can read the read at the extensive article's URL. The concern is also if the contaminants can accumulate in the tissues of assorted food animals and then be eaten by those higher on the food chain (pets and humans). Of course, that depends on what types of animals got the contaminated products in their foods. Given that three types of imported products with wide uses have already been found in which the melamine was present there is a lot of tracing for the FDA to do. Sukie (not a vet) Current FHL address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 5584]