Melamine fed to fish

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

 

 

Melamine fed to fish

 

VANCOUVER--The potential for global ecological disaster as

result of cheating in international trade was illustrated on May 8,

2007, when the Vancouver-based Canadian division of Skretting

International recalled fish food sold to 25 Oregon Department of Fish

and Wildlife hatcheries because it contained melamine.

As melamine is water-soluable, it does not accumulate in the

bodies of fish, unlike heavy metals such as mercury and chemical

compounds, such as PCBs.

" We do not believe this poses any significant human health

threat, " said FDA food safety chief David Acheson.

But melamine itself was not the cause for worry. The greater

concern was what if the contaminant had been more volatile,

longer-persisting, or biologically active?

Skretting International, founded in 1899, sells fish food

to hatcheries and aquaculture operations from Norway to Chile. Many

Skretting customers raise fish in sea pens, from which a disease or

contaminant could spread to the wild.

This time the problem was detected because the entire animal

feed industry was on alert as result of pet food recalls that started

on March 16, 2007.

If the contaminant had not sickened thousands of pets, whose

vigilant caretakers alerted veterinarians and food manufacturers,

factory farmers of fish, chickens, and pigs might not have been

aware of anything wrong, because those animals are typically

slaughtered before health effects that are passed through food chains

can become apparent.

Melamine was reportedly found only in a Skretting starter

feed prepared for juvenile salmon and trout. As the fish grow, they

are switched to a different feed formula.

In addition, the tainted material from which the feed as

made was apparently used only at the Vancouver plant, not throughout

the Skretting chain.

The melamine pet food contamination saga spread to Canada on

April 10, when pet food suspected of making animals ill was traced

to the Menu Foods packaging plant in Streetsville, Ontario, almost

a month after recalls of food packed in two U.S. plants started.

The Agriculture and Food Laboratory at the University of

Guelph in Ontario achieved a breakthrough in investigating the issue

about a week later, finding that

cyanuric acid, found in urine samples from poisoned animals,

interacts with melamine to form crystals that appear to block kidney

function.

Only about 1% of the melamine-contaminated wheat and rice

gluten that is believed to have been sold to animal food

manufacturers is known to have gone to Canada.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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