SOURCE: Pet Food Industry
2008-10-21

1,500 Chinese dogs dead after eating melamine-tainted food
Some 1,500 dogs bred for their raccoon-like fur have died after eating feed tainted with melamine, a veterinarian said early this week, raising questions about how widespread the industrial chemical is in China's food chain.The raccoon dogs - a breed native to east Asia that is raised for its fur - were fed a product that contained melamine and developed kidney stones, Zhang Wenkui, a veterinary professor at Shenyang Agriculture University, said. All of the dogs died on farms in just one village.

"First, we found melamine in the dogs' feed, and second, I found that 25% of the stones in the dogs' kidneys were made up of melamine," said Zhang, who determined that the animals died of kidney failure after performing a necropsy - an animal autopsy - on about a dozen dogs. Zhang declined to say when the deaths occurred but a report in the Southern Metropolis Daily said they had been over the past two months. Zhang said the company that produces the animal feed is in talks with breeders in Xishan, the village in Liaoning province where the dogs died, about providing compensation and has pressured them not to talk to the media. Zhang did not give the company's name but the newspaper report said the feed was produced by Harbin Hualong Feed Co.

Raccoon dogs are not the only animals in China that have fallen victim to melamine-tainted products - a lion cub and two baby orangutans developed kidney stones last month at a zoo near Shanghai. Hospital officials said the three baby animals had been nursed for more than a year with milk powder made by Sanlu Group Co, which is at the centre of the tainted milk crisis. An official at the Liaoning provincial animal feed and medicine inspection center said the facility tested one sample of animal feed from Xishan and found that it contained about 500 parts per million of melamine. China's Health Ministry recently capped the amount of melamine permissible in milk, milk powder and food products that contain more than 15% dairy to 2.5 parts per million. The center is currently assisting the Ministry of Agriculture in a nationwide inspection of animal feed for similar contamination but would not give any other details.