38 poultry farms in Indiana given tainted feed
Some chickens likely in food supply, but human risk is low, government says
I have called Tyson Foods that has a big confined chicken operation in Rush County Indiana just about 20 miles from me, and the reply was "no comment", contact National Headquarters.
The MSNBC Story is below. I have a sad feeling that this is the beginning and not the last we will hear about this. Our government does not have a reputation for honesty after all.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government said on Monday 38 poultry farms in Indiana were given contaminated feed containing melamine in early February, with some of the animals likely to have entered the food supply.
The Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration said in a joint statement that officials learned of the link between the chicken feed and tainted pet food as part of the investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain the industrial chemical melamine and related compounds.
The affected poultry farms and breeder poultry farms fed the contaminated feed to poultry within days of receiving it, the agencies said. Other farms will probably be identified as having received tainted feed, they added.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
All the broilers believed to have been fed contaminated products have been processed, while the breeders are under voluntary hold by flock owners, the agencies said.
Birds that were given the contaminated feed will not be allowed to enter the U.S. food supply. Farmers will be compensated if they destroy the birds that consume the feed.
The agencies also said there was a "low-risk" to humans and no food recalls were expected at this time. They are uncertain how many chickens were involved, how many entered the food supply or where they went.
"We haven’t completed counting yet," said USDA spokesman Keith Williams
Update:
I ran a grassroots campaign for State Senate against Bob Jackman who runs a HUGE hog CAFO and who was poisoning the rivers and killing the fish with runoff. This was in 2004 before I ran for Congress against Mike Pence, so I DO NOT get the Farm Bureau endorsment! I am a pain to them and this is not going to help me with that voter block, but this is about the health of ALL of us, not about personal politics. That said,
the latest from the AP, and it seems PORK might be included.
WASHINGTON (AP)....An estimated 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana received contaminated feed in early February and fed it to poultry within days of receiving it, the agencies said. Other farms will probably be identified as having received contaminated feed, they added.
All the broilers believed to have been fed contaminated products have been processed, while the breeders are under voluntary hold by flock owners, the agencies said.
The FDA and USDA said the likelihood of human illness from eating chicken fed the contaminated product is very low. With no evidence of harm to humans, no recall of poultry products processed from these animals was being issued, the agencies said.
On Saturday, the FDA and USDA cited similar reasons for not issuing a recall after determining that hogs in some states may have been fed the tainted pet food.
emphasis mine.
From the comments: This needs to be seen.
NYT-Workers Admit Adding Melamine
The NYT reports:
"...As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein..."
"...For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits.."
"...Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed," said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. "I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it..."
"...Scientists are now trying to determine whether melamine could be harmful to humans...The pet food case is also putting China’s agricultural exports under greater scrutiny because the country has had a terrible food safety record..."
"...In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim..."
So American companies are allowed to import food from a country that "has a terrible food safety record" and the American public doesn’t have to be informed that this food is imported from China. Apparently the health and safety of American pets and people isn’t really very important, when compared to the fact that the companies in this country and China can make bigger profits by selling tainted food.
Thanks kurious!