The Health officials suspect the 38 pet deaths in Oregon to be directly related to the nationwide pet food recall. The other 66 cases of pets, which did not result in death, according to Dr. Emilio DeBess, Oregon’s public health veterinarian, can also be related to the contaminated pet food. However, the link is only being suspected and an extensive testing would be required to establish any relation. Menu foods recalled around 60 million cans of pet food on March 16 after reports of pet deaths. As per the FDA testing, a chemical known as melamine was the cause of the deaths. However, Menu Foods connects only 16 pet deaths to the contamination.
The pet owners have filed a class action lawsuit against the company. The source of contamination was traced to the wheat gluten imported from a Chinese company, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company Ltd. The company supplied the wheat gluten with the help of ChemNutra Inc., a U.S. nutritional and pharmaceutical chemical importer. In addition, the Chinese company has also denied the allegations. It claimed that the information of the U.S. officials that its product contained harmful substances were “rumors’. The company said it “is astonished by recent rumors from the U.S. that melamine and aminopterin, a rat poison, were found in Chinese-produced wheat gluten and traced to our company.” The FDA, which probed the claim, has asked to stop any further supply of wheat gluten from the company.
Source: CNN
