FDA: Pet treats imported from China can cause severe illness, death

Saturday, December 03, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: pet treats, China, FDA

(NaturalNews) A recent uptick in adverse event reports has prompted the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a fresh warning to pet owners about the potential toxicity of certain pet treats imported from China. MSNBC reports that at least 70 dogs so far this year have been sickened or killed by chicken jerky products imported from China, and that dog owners who observe any symptoms potentially associated with the use of such treats should stop using them immediately.

According to reports, FDA tests have been unable thus far to identify the precise cause of the contamination as no specific chemicals, microbes, or other harmful contaminants have been detected in tested products. For this reason, the agency is simply warning the public to beware of all imported pet treats and to watch for any warning signs of sickness that may be associated with them.

Purchasing any food products at all from China is a bit like playing Russian roulette, though, as the country's food quality standards leave much to be desired. Many NaturalNews readers will recall the melamine mayhem from back in 2008 when roughly 53,000 children fell ill from tainted milk products (http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/got-mel...). Earlier that same year, pet food protein supplements made in China were also found to be tainted with melamine.

But when considering the high number of domestic food recalls in recent years, US food products may not be much safer than Chinese ones. In 2009, Optima brand pet food imported from the US, for instance, was implicated in causing serious illness and death in Chinese dogs. MSNBC reported at the time that aflatoxin, a type of mold, had likely developed on the food (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28626069/ns/heal...).

Many varieties of pet treats, both domestic and imported, have also been subjected to irradiation treatments, which involve blasting food with ionizing radiation in order to allegedly "cleanse" it of harmful pathogens and viruses. But this deadly process renders food toxic, as was illustrated back in 2008 in Australia when several pets died from consuming irradiated food (https://www.naturalnews.com/025029_food_radia...).

Irradiated food products are marked with a radura symbol, which is helpful when trying to avoid them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radura

In other words, when purchasing any pet food or treats, always be sure to identify the product origin and verify whether or not they have been treated with irradiation -- your furry loved ones will thank you!

Sources for this article include:

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/21...