#NerdsUnite: The secret life of a veterinary technician (pet food recall)
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She and I met ... well, somewhere in the social space. I think we might have started talking through this site directly, then through facebook - maybe ... I'm not sure. But she's awesome. I talk to her on twitter almost every day, and she's really rad and TOTALLY a big huge animal lover. Like crazy huge!! In these series of posts she will be talking about her life and random adventures with sometimes more than two legged creatures. I guess there's only one more thing left to say ... HIT IT LINDSAY!!</editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @TheCraftafarian
Hey Nerds! In the last 30 days there has been several pet food recalls. All these foods are manufactured by the same plant but do not necessarily belong to the same brand of food. This is one of the problems in the pet food industry--when several brands are manufactured at one plant you run the risk of multiple batches of contamination. All of the foods have been voluntarily recalled and to my knowledge have not made any PETS sick. The reason for the recall is that several people fell ill and the only thing in common was that they all handled dog food manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods. Here's the link to the human illness (salmonella) http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/dog-food-05-12/index.html. Basically people have been sick since October (illness reported between Oct 2011 and April 22, 2012) and of the 5 people who could recall the brands of food they fed, four of them handled food manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods. On April 2, 2012 salmonella was detected by Michigan Department of Agriculture in a bag of Diamond Naturals Lamb meal and rice which had been collected March 2012 for routine retail testing. Public Health Investigators were able to "fingerprint" this strain of salmonella by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). "PFGE can be used to distinguish strains of organisms at the DNA level. DNA “fingerprints,” or patterns, are submitted electronically to a dynamic database at the CDC. These databases are available on-demand to participants—this allows for rapid comparison of the patterns." {source: http://www.cdc.gov/pulsenet/}
So Public Health Investigators were able to take the salmonella strain affecting people and match it up the one they found in the dog food. As part of this investigation Ohio also collected and tested food manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods. They detected salmonella in an unopened bag of Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul (manufactured by Diamond) from the home of an ill person, and an unopened bag at the retail store. A sample of Puppy Formula (by Diamond) collected by the FDA during an inspection has also tested positive, this food was manufactured at the South Carolina plant.
Great.
There are several brands of food affected. They have had four voluntary recalls since this all started 30 days ago. http://diamondpetrecall.com/updatespress-releases/ The website lists the specific production numbers and best by dates which will tell you if your food has been affected. If you pet is acting ill you should contact your veterinarian or emergency veterinarian immediately.
The foods affected are Kirkland, Diamond, Diamond Naturals, Taste of the Wild, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Country Value, Premium Edge, Professional, and 4Health. Only certain lots of this food may be affected, you will need to go here http://diamondpetrecall.com/diamond-expands-voluntary-recall/ to confirm.
These brands are also produced by the plant but are reported to not have been affected: Wellness, Natural Balance, Solid Gold, and Canidae (Evo, Innova, California Naturals).
If you find that your food has been recalled I advise that you contact the retail store you purchased it from and find a different brand in the meantime. Unfortunately so many brands are affected I really feel that I cannot recommend a specific brand. I may look into making my own pet food and treats if this keeps happening, its just not worth risking my pets lives on cheap/convenient pet food.
I personally use Kirkland and recommend it as well as Wellness. My dog food is supposedly safe (the production code wasn't one of the ones provided) but I'm still scared. My cat food has been recalled. It's like my "healthy" treats are not any good (/home/2012/2/12/nerdsunite-the-secret-life-of-a-veterinary-technician-health.html) and now my dog food. My dad thinks I should make my own treats. Maybe I will.
Good luck finding safe foods and treats, I will keep you guys posted if I find anything good. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me!
click here for more info on the recall