Some 1,500 raccoon dogs bred for their raccoon-like fur have died after eating feed tainted with melamine, raising questions about how widespread the industrial chemical is in China’s food chain.
The revelation comes amid a crisis over dairy products tainted with melamine that has caused kidney stones in tens of thousands of Chinese children and has been linked to the deaths of four infants.
KIDNEY FAILURE
The raccoon dogs — a species of the canid family that is not a true dog — is native to east Asia. Their fur is used to trim coats and other clothing. The animals died of kidney failure after eating the tainted feed, Zhang Wenkui, a veterinary professor at Shenyang Agriculture University, said on Monday.
“First, we found melamine in the dogs’ feed, and second, I found that 25 percent of the stones in the dogs’ kidneys were made up of melamine,” said Zhang, who performed a necropsy — an animal autopsy — on about a dozen of the raccoon dogs.
Zhang declined to say when the deaths occurred but a report on Monday in the Southern Metropolis Daily said they had occurred over the past two months.
In the ongoing tainted milk scandal, which has been linked to the deaths of four babies in China, melamine was said to be added to watered-down milk to artificially boost nitrogen levels, making products seem higher in protein when tested. Some 54,000 children were also sickened.
The animal deaths were also a reminder of last year’s uproar over a Chinese-made pet food ingredient containing melamine that was linked to the deaths of dozens of dogs and cats in the US and elsewhere.
TOUGHER GUIDELINES?
At the time, China’s product safety authorities revoked the business licenses of questionable firms, announced tougher guidelines and increased inspections.
But countless small and illegally operated manufacturers found throughout the country make monitoring hard.
It also makes it difficult to define the supply chain and trace the origin of components, chemicals and food additives.
Zhang said the company that produces the animal feed is in talks with breeders in Xishan, the village in Liaoning Province where the raccoon dogs died, about providing compensation and has pressured them not to talk to the media.
Zhang did not give the company’s name but the newspaper report said the feed was produced by Harbin Hualong Feed Co.
The company refused to comment on Monday, saying officials were unavailable because they were in a meeting.
An official surnamed Liu at the Liaoning provincial animal feed and medicine inspection center said the facility tested one sample of animal feed from Xishan and found that it contained about 500 parts per million (ppm) of melamine.
The Health Ministry recently capped the amount of melamine permissible in milk, milk powder and food products that contain more than 15 percent dairy to 2.5ppm.
Liu said that the center was assisting the Ministry of Agriculture in a nationwide inspection of animal feed for similar contamination but would not give any other details.
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