Au moins 2.5 millions poulets ont ingéré de la mélamine

[Animal 0]

USA- Au moins 2.5 millions poulets ont ingéré de la mélamine ... de même que des cochons (Une enquête est en cours)

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Date: 2 May 2007
Source: Washington Post


with thAt least 2.5 million broiler chickens from an Indiana producer were fed pet food scraps contaminated with chemical melamine and subsequently sold for human consumption, federal health officials reported yesterday [1 May 2007].

Hundreds of other producers may have similarly sold an unknown amount
of contaminated poultry in recent months, they added, painting a
picture of much broader consumption of contaminated feed and food
than had previously been acknowledged in the widening pet food scandal.

Officials emphasized that they do not believe the tainted chickens --
or the smaller number of contaminated pigs that were reported to have
entered the human food supply -- pose risks to people who ate them.

"We do not believe there is any significant threat of human illness
from this," said David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's
chief medical officer. FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach named
Acheson yesterday [1 May 2007] the agency's new "food czar,"
officially, assistant commissioner for food protection.

None of the farm animals is known to have become sick from the food,
and very little of the contaminant is suspected of having accumulated
in their tissue. Thus, no recall of any products that may still be on
store shelves or in people's freezers is planned, officials said.

Nonetheless, 100 000 Indiana chickens that ate the melamine-laced
food and are still alive have been quarantined and will be destroyed
as a precautionary measure, as will any other animals that turn up as
the investigation continues to expand.

The revelations are the latest in a rapidly widening scandal that
started out with reports of a few deaths of pets. It has mushroomed
into a major debacle that, even if no human injuries emerge, has
exposed significant gaps in the nation's food-safety system.

In the 1st volley of what Hill watchers expect to be a series of
proposed fixes, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro
(D-Conn.) yesterday [1 May 2007] introduced legislation that would
give the FDA the power to order mandatory recalls of adulterated
foods, establish an early warning and notification system for tainted
human or pet food, and allow fines for companies that do not promptly
report contaminated products.

Meanwhile, the FDA expanded the number of plant-based protein
products from China on its "do not import" list, pending the
completion of further tests on various kinds of glutens, protein
concentrates and other products.

At the center of the problem are pet foods spiked with melamine, a
mildly toxic chemical that can make food appear to have more protein
than it does. Most of the food went to pets, but scraps were sold in
February 2007 to the Indiana poultry producer, officials said. The
contaminated material may have made up about 5 percent of the
chickens' total food supply.

That small fraction, and the fact that people, unlike pets, do not
eat the same thing day after day, suggests that consumers who ate
contaminated pork or chicken would probably have ingested extremely
small doses of melamine, well below the threshold for causing health
effects, officials said. Experts conceded, however, that they know
little about how the toxin interacts with other compounds in food.

Investigators are tracking streams of the contaminated food through
several states.

"Our sense is that the investigation will lead to additional farms
where contaminated feed may have been fed to either animals or
poultry," said Kenneth Petersen of the Agriculture Department Food
Safety and Inspection Service.

Officials said the FDA has received 17 000 reports of pets that
owners believe were sickened or killed by contaminated food. About
8000 reports, roughly half of them involving animals that died, have
been formally entered into the FDA's tracking system for further analysis.

U.S. investigators have arrived in China, officials said, but
inspections of production facilities there have been hampered by the
start yesterday [1 May 2007] of a week-long national vacation.

"Essentially, all the officials are on holiday," said Walter Batts,
part of the FDA's China team, adding that one Chinese official had
stayed behind to help.

[Byline: Rick Weiss]

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