Hogs fed tainted feed to be destroyed

Hogs that ate feed containing the chemical blamed for the deaths of at least 16 pets will be destroyed and their owners compensated, U.S. government officials said Thursday. As many as 6,000 hogs now under quarantine may be affected.

“It’s the best course of action to humanely slaughter them,” said Kenneth Peterson, assistant administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Meat from the animals also will be destroyed, officials said.

It is unclear whether any pork from animals that ate the feed has made it into the U.S. food supply, officials from the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration said.

The likelihood of humans getting sick from eating meat tainted with the chemical in question, melamine, is extremely low, said David Elder, director of enforcement in the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs. However, it is not known what effect the chemical may have when combined with other compounds, officials said.

Melamine, used to make plastic kitchen utensils and fertilizers, was first discovered in pet food after reports of kidney failure in dogs and cats. The chemical was traced to wheat gluten obtained from China by ChemNutra Inc. of Las Vegas and later found in a batch of imported rice protein.

Eight pork producers in seven states -- California, Kansas, Utah, New York, Oklahoma and the Carolinas -- are known to have purchased the tainted feed, officials said.

A feed mill in Missouri also may be affected.

Companies including Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, and Canada’s Menu Foods Ltd. have recalled more than 100 brands of pet food as U.S. and Chinese investigators probe for the source of the outbreak.

Chinese authorities said today that the two Chinese companies suspected of shipping contaminated products for pet food did export wheat gluten and rice protein to the U.S. However, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said the firms did not declare to Chinese customs that the products were raw materials for pet food. The ministry did not say whether products found at the two companies contained melamine.

Chinese officials have invited U.S. inspectors to help with their own investigations. Murray Lumpkin, an FDA associate commissioner, said U.S. inspectors expect to be in China “in the very near future.”