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USDA: Pigs that Ate Tainted Feed are Safe to Eat

Indiana Chickens Quarantined Pending More Tests

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 16, 2007

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The 56,000 pigs that ate melamine-tainted feed are safe for human consumption and can be released for processing, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has decided.

Farmers in seven states -- California, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, Kansas, Utah and Illinois -- had quarantined the pigs pending test results.

Federal officials placed the swine in quarantine after learning they’d consumed feed made with melamine-tainted pet food scraps. Melamine is a chemical used to make plastic and fertilizers. It is not approved for use in human or pet food.

The presence of melamine in the mislabeled and imported wheat flour from China triggered a massive recall of pet food in North America. Since March, 18 companies have recalled more than 5,600 pet food products.

Thousands of dogs and cats that have eaten the tainted pet food have suffered kidney disease or died.

4,100 Deaths

The Food and Drug Administration says it’s received reports of 4,100 deaths of cats and dogs linked to the adulterated pet food.

The Pet Connection Web site has received unconfirmed reports of 4,867 pets -- 2,519 cats and 2,348 dogs -- that have died from the contaminated food. It also said the total number of pets affected by the tainted food is 14,646.

On Tuesday, the USDA and the FDA said there’s little risk to humans who eat meat from these quarantined pigs -- or any food with low levels of melamine or related compounds.

Federal scientists said that even in the most extreme scenario -- in which all the solid food a person consumed in a day contained melamine and the melamine compound cyanuric acid at the same levels in the meat from these pigs -- the potential exposure is about 250 times lower than the dose considered safe.

“Translated to consumption levels, this means that a person weighing 132 pounds would have to eat more than 800 pounds per day of pork or other food containing melamine and its compounds to approach a level of consumption that would cause a health concern.,” the FDA said Tuesday.

Healthy Pigs

Tests also revealed that melamine and melamine compounds did not accumulate in the pigs that ate the tainted feed. The chemicals, officials said, were filtered through the kidneys and the pigs appear healthy.

These animals, however, will undergo rigorous USDA inspection required for all meat and poultry prior to processing.

Chickens On Hold

In related news, the USDA on Tuesday said it will continue to hold approximately 80,000 chickens on farms in Indiana until a test that can detect melamine in the poultry is developed. That is expected later this week.

The FDA also said it’s continuing its investigation of melamine in fish feed manufactured by the Canadian company Skretting.

That company recalled its fish feed from all commercial fisheries and fish hatcheries that may have received that tainted product, including two in the United States. The fish in those U.S. hatcheries are on hold. The FDA is testing samples of those fish and the feed for melamine.

FDA officials, however, say there is little risk to humans who eat fish that consumed melamine-tainted feed.

The FDA traced all the melamine-tainted ingredients -- originally thought to be wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate -- to two companies in China: Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. and Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd.

Federal officials learned these ingredients were intentionally spiked with melamine and melamine-related compounds to increase the protein content.

The two Chinese companies that exported the products to the United States are now closed and their equipment is dismantled, U.S. food inspectors in China discovered.

“We visited the two facilities, but there's essentially nothing to be found in that they are currently closed down, not operating,” Walter Batts, deputy director of the FDA’s Office of International Programs, told reporters last week.

“There's essentially nothing, as they have determined, that is available to be seen at the facilities. They've been closed down, machinery dismantled, nothing to really get access to.”

The Chinese government recently disclosed that Xuzhou Anying did not declare the contaminated wheat ingredients as a raw material for feed or food. Instead, the company listed them as a non-food product, which meant they were not subject to mandatory inspection by China.

Chinese authorities have since detained Xuzhou Anying’s manager, Mao Lijun.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Mao Lijun’s factory has a checkered past.

“Farmers in this poor rural area about 400 miles northwest of Shanghai had complained to local government officials since 2004 that Mao's factory was spewing noxious fumes that made their eyes tear up and the poplar trees nearby shed their leaves prematurely,” the paper reported. “Yet no one stopped Mao's company from churning out bags of food powders and belching smoke — until one day last month when, in the middle of the night, bulldozers arrived and tore down the facility.

The story added: “It wasn't authorities that finally acted: Mao himself razed the brick factory — days before the investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arrived in China on a mission to track down the source of the tainted pet food ingredients.”

One pet owner who recently contacted ConsumerAffairs.com says the United States should stop doing business with China.

“I am furious about all the pets who have died from tainted ingredients from China,” wrote Lauren of Pennsylvania. “Ban all things from China. It’s all junk…stop importing from all these foreign countries.”

More about the Pet Food Recall ...

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