Good source of pet food recall info.

[dl meckes]

http://www.itchmo.com/

and for a quickly updated list:

http://www.itchmo.com/recalls.html

I read where there may be more recalls tomorrow...

[dl meckes]

A regular (and very reliable) poster on rec.pets.dogs.health has posted the following today:

Just a reminder - this is Friday - we have 2 more companies to disclose.
Please sign up for Itchmo's recall notices, or keep checking www.itchmo.com
www.petconnection.com or www.howl911.com for updates. There's another story noted at Pet Connection from Sacramento Bee.
Read it all - another excellent article by the woman who broke the melamine story
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 03671.html
[..]
Researchers also have identified three other contaminants in the urine and kidneys of animals sickened or killed after eating the recalled foods,
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.
[..]
The Trib learned yesterday that melamine-contaminated feed was fed to
hogs.The FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture are investigating.

Some animals that are believed to have eaten the contaminated food were slaughtered and sold as food before authorities learned their feed had been contaminated, said Nancy Lungren, spokeswoman for the California agriculture department.

The state quarantined the farm Wednesday, she said.
Yesterday, the urine of some pigs at the 1,500-animal American Hog Farm in Ceres, Calif., 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.
[..]
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, according to Dr. Brent Hoff, a veterinarian and
clinical toxicologist and pathologist, at the University of Guelph, in
Ontario, Canada; Richard Goldstein, associate professor of medicine at
Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine and a kidney specialist, and Dr. Thomas Mullaney, acting director of Michigan State University's Center for Population and Animal Health.

Michigan State's lab so far has found only the amilorine and amiloride, but Mullaney said he was aware of at least three other labs finding the cyanuric acid in the animals. The FDA asked labs involved in the pet food recall to test for the three chemicals. [.]

........BTW a regular poster (Bernie - a farmer) at PetConx had this figured out already. Urea + melamine can be added to cattle feed as a source of (NPN) nonprotein nitrogen. It's slow release - cows have 4 stomachs - doesn't hurt them (unless overdosed of course) and one of the breakdown products is cyanide. So all these protein powders were really the equivalent of cattle feed.