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Criminal Probe Opened in Pet Food Scare
Howl 911's comments:The Food and Drug Administration has opened a criminal investigation in the widening pet food contamination scandal, officials said yesterday, as it was confirmed that tainted pork might have made its way onto human dinner plates in California.
More than 100 hogs that ate contaminated food at a custom slaughterhouse in California's Central Valley were sold to private individuals and to an unnamed licensed facility in Northern California during the past 2 1/2 weeks. The hogs consumed feed that contained rice protein tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened and killed dogs and cats around the world.[/b]
Also, additional contaminants have been identified in pet food, stated to be metabolites of melamine.The FDA has finally opened a criminal investigation, but only after learning that some of the melamine-laced rice protein concentrate was sold to a commercial hog farm in Northern California, and that some of the meat from hogs which were fed the RPC have been sold for human consumption. The tainted RPC was sold to the hog farm by Diamond Pet Foods, Inc., the manufacturer of the recalled Natural Balance products. One would think, with this latest development, the FDA would now identify the remaining two pet food manucturers who bought the tainted RPC from Wilbur-Ellis, so that other meat farming operations could be on the alert for any RPC these as-yet-unnamed pet food companies might be attempting to sell off ... or have already sold.[/b]
Researchers in at least three labs found cyanuric acid, amilorine and amiloride -- all by-products of melamine -- in the crystals of animals' urine, tissues and kidneys...
All three are by-products of melamine, which researchers said they believe were formed as the animals metabolized the melamine.
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[/b]