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Company Seeks to Reach Out to Owners: Diamond Pet Foods Has Set Up Customer Hot Line, Plans to Help Pay Vet

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 09:00 CST

By Bill Robinson, The State, Columbia, S.C., The State, Columbia, S.C.

Dec. 28--The manufacturer of pet food made in Gaston suspected in the deaths of as many as 10 dogs in South Carolina is weighing how it might compensate their owners.

"We want to work out a consistent and fair program to provide customers disaffected by this tragedy with help with their veterinarian bills," said Mark Brinkmann, chief operations officer for Diamond Pet Foods.

Diamond Pet Foods also set up a toll-free consumer information center Monday to connect experts with pet owners worried that their animals might have ingested tainted food.

Brinkmann said half of the phone calls received so far have come from parts of the country where the company has not distributed the product in question.

The Missouri-based manufacturer recalled cat and dog food processed in its Lexington County plant between Sept. 1 and Dec. 10. The bags of dried food display a date code that includes the letter "G" in the 11th or 12th position and suggests the product should be used by March 1, 2007, through June 10, 2007.

The food is suspected of being contaminated with aflatoxin, which is caused by a mold found in corn. It typically shows up in corn raised during drought conditions that are followed by high levels of humidity.

Brinkmann said Diamond Pet Foods pulls samples from its production line every 30 minutes and has roughly 2,500 specimens from the recall period to analyze. That job, which Brinkmann said is being performed by independent labs hired by the company, was about 85 percent complete as of early Tuesday afternoon.

The sampling, Brinkmann said, is a standard quality control technique that should help the company assess whether its food was contaminated and, if it was, when it passed through the Gaston plant. Brinkmann said most of the corn the Gaston plant uses is grown in South Carolina. The federal Food and Drug Administration continues its investigation.

Dr. Pamela Parnell, director of Clemson University's Veterinary Diagnostic Center, said Tuesday she continues working to cross-check tissue samples from the dead dogs and the food their owners submitted as the possible source of illness.

Parnell said she is aware of at least 10 suspicious deaths and has classified five cases as "presumptive" in linking them to aflatoxin. She said she could not confirm those findings until the end of the week.

Because no government agency or organization tracks unusual mortality rates in pets, firm numbers on how many animals might have been affected by the food recall are difficult to gauge.

"I don't think anyone is going to get a true, accurate count," Parnell said.

Parnell said she received one report of a mysterious death involving a cat, but Brinkmann said he had not heard any reports of sick or dying felines.

Parnell anticipates receiving an additional half-dozen tissue and food samples from veterinarians around the state.

Animals mildly affected by aflatoxin can recover because it attacks the liver, which has some regenerative ability. But there is no medication that can be administered to help pets ward off a fatal amount of the toxin.

Reach Robinson at (803) 771-8482 or brobinson@thestate.com [mailto:brobinson@thestate.com].

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Copyright (c) 2005, The State, Columbia, S.C.

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Source: The State (Columbia, S.C.)

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