U.S. sees no need to quarantine chickens

Farmers will be allowed to sell 20 million chickens being held on farms that may have received feed contaminated with the chemical melamine, suspected in a rash of pet deaths, the Agriculture Department said Monday.

The department said there was no need to quarantine livestock on farms where melamine or related compounds could not be detected in animal feed, perhaps because it made up only a small share of the feed.

A USDA spokesman said 20 million chickens were in that category.

Animals will be held on other hog and poultry farms, the USDA said, where feed tests have found melamine or where feed samples have not been submitted for tests or are unavailable. Animal risk assessments will determine whether they will be culled or used for food, the USDA said.

In the same announcement, scientists from five federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said people faced very low risk from meat from livestock whose feed was supplemented with pet food scraps that contained melamine. The scientists will now assess the health risk to livestock.

Poultry and hog feeders in several states bought salvaged pet food for use in feed rations for their animals. In some instances, wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate used in making the pet food contained melamine.

“In several cases, feed samples have tested negative for melamine and related compounds,” said the USDA. “It is assumed that because only small amounts of the contaminated feed were mixed with other rations, the melamine and related compounds were no longer detectable.

“USDA has concluded that, based on the human risk assessment and the inability to detect melamine in the feed samples, these animals no longer need to be quarantined or withheld from processing.”