Government Says No Recall Needed In Case Of Hogs Thought To Have Eaten Contaminated Pet Food

Saturday, April 28th 2007, 8:15 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Two federal agencies said Saturday a continuing investigation affirms that the risk to humans from hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food is very low and that no recall is warranted.

The government said last week that 345 of 6,000 hogs that may have the food are believed to have been placed on the path to slaughter, but that almost all are still on farms in California, New York and South Carolina.

Those states were told that no meat from any of those hogs can enter the food supply.

``At this time, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the processed pork product, and therefore no recall of meat products processed from these animals is being issued,'' the Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Department said in a joint statement.

``Testing and the joint investigation continue. If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken,'' the agencies said.

Salvaged pet food from companies known or suspected of using a tainted ingredient was shipped to hog farms in several states for use as feed.

The pet food sent to the farms later was discovered to have an ingredient, rice protein concentrate, imported from China that was tainted by an industrial chemical, melamine. Testing also revealed other related and similarly banned compounds, including cyanuric acid. Melamine is not considered a human health concern, but there is no scientific data on the health effects of melamine combined with the other compounds.