How Lethal Pet Food Got to Store Shelves: Gaston Plant Tested for Toxins in Corn, and Implemented New, More Thorough

By Jim Duplessis, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Jan. 11–How lethal pet food got on store shelves

Mark Brinkmann believed he had staved off a contamination threat at Diamond Pet Foods’ Lexington County plant, until he got a call the evening of Dec. 16.

The veterinarian on the line said the company’s food was “hot” with a lethal toxin. She said dogs from a kennel and two households near Rochester, N.Y., were dead or dying from a fungus byproduct called aflatoxin.

The veterinarian’s warning led to a Dec. 20 recall of dog and cat food made at the company’s plant in Gaston and shipped to nearly two dozen states.

Diamond Pet Foods had known since September the Gaston plant was receiving abnormally frequent shipments of corn contaminated with aflatoxin. That frequency alarmed company officials.

New testing measures — aimed at better gauging the magnitude of contamination — were put in place about three months later, on Nov. 30, said Brinkmann, Diamond Pet Foods chief operating officer.

But the call from New York told Brinkmann the poison pet food already had slipped out of the plant. Between late summer and late November, millions of pounds of dog and cat food had been shipped to pet stores nationwide. An unknown amount of it was contaminated.

The recall prompted an investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. By early January, states had reported 76 dog deaths that might be linked to tainted food from the plant, including 22 in South Carolina. Some veterinarians believe many deaths have gone unsuspected or unreported.

Pamela Parnell, an animal pathologist at Clemson University’s lab in Columbia, said she has never seen such a large wave of aflatoxin deaths in pets.

“We’re going to see deaths as long as there’s feed out there, because people aren’t aware of the problem.”

SHIPMENTS OF TAINTED CORN

Diamond Pet Foods’ problem began in September, when the Gaston plant saw a spike in arrivals of corn with aflatoxin levels exceeding federal limits. Every tainted load found was turned away.

Corn is the largest ingredient in dried food for cats and dogs. It is also one of the most common carriers of aflatoxin, a poison produced by a fungus that can grow on grains.

The poison isn’t easily smelled or tasted. It’s not destroyed in cooking. Worse, it doesn’t affect animals immediately. Instead, it first destroys the liver irreversibly. Symptoms can appear two or three weeks later. By that time, it’s usually too late.

The fungus occurs naturally, and its spores are common. It can grow and produce aflatoxin in foods such as nuts and grains. It especially likes corn, moist corn.

In past years, the Gaston plant had identified and rejected one or two truckloads of corn per year with aflatoxin levels exceeding federal limits.

But starting in September, the plant was receiving one or two tainted truckloads per week.

“We were rejecting a lot of loads,” Brinkmann said.

At the time, the company was using a test that generates a simple “yes” or “no” to the question of whether aflatoxin is present at levels at or higher than 20 parts per billion, the maximum level allowed by the FDA. Samples were taken from all truckloads of corn.

Concerned with the increased frequency of positive tests, the company asked the Missouri Corn Growers Association for advice. The association recommended the company switch to another testing method. The deeper testing would measure not just aflatoxin’s presence, but also its concentration, to better assess the severity of the problem.

Brinkmann ordered the new testing equipment in early November and began a two-week training program for workers on its use. The new method began Nov. 30.

But by then, Brinkmann said, batches of food with high aflatoxin levels already had left the plant. Tests have determined the tainted food was produced between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15, carrying a “best by” date of April 1-15, 2007. About 6 million pounds of pet food were made at the plant during that period.

DOG DEATHS NOTICED

Veterinarians began tying dog deaths to aflatoxin and Diamond Pet Foods by mid-December.

Sharon Center, a veterinarian at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and a liver specialist since 1975, in mid-December recognized the poison’s signature lesions on livers of dogs that had died.

“I looked at the samples, and I said, ‘Oh my God, it’s aflatoxin.’”

On Jan. 2, Center had to put down another dog. It had belonged to the clinic’s receptionist.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Center said. “I’m absolutely certain hundreds of dogs are dead.”

Brinkmann first got word from the veterinarians in New York state, who called at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16.

“We had no idea anything slipped through until we got a call from Upstate New York that our product was hot,” he said.

Brinkmann had the vets ship a food sample by overnight mail to a lab at the University of Missouri. After the tests came back positive, company officials decided to recall all corn-based dog and cat food made from Sept. 1 through Dec. 10.

The recall of 18 types of dog and cat food was announced Dec. 20, on the brink of the holidays.

In at least one case, tests found levels dramatically higher than allowed by the FDA. In the case of Lacy, the yellow Labrador in Camden whose death from aflatoxin poisoning was the first reported in the state, the food had 433 parts aflatoxin per billion — 21 times the 20 ppb level allowed.

GOOD PRACTICES

Pet food is regulated under sections 402 and 406 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act.

“The FDA doesn’t require tests, but everyone tests for good manufacturing practices,” said Stephen Payne, spokesman for the Pet Food Institute in Washington, D.C. “Just because it’s not a requirement does not mean it’s not taken seriously. It is.”

A company not testing its grain would be taking a risk. “We’re in the business of making safe, wholesome, nutritious products. You have pet health, which we take very seriously, and consumer brand confidence.

“No one runs through the forest with their eyes closed. Precautions are taken,” Payne said. “Everyone tests pretty consistently in-bound grain shipments.”

Most companies don’t test out-bound shipments of food.

“If it’s not in the commodity input, it won’t be in products out,” Payne said.

Diamond Pet Foods did not test out-bound food until last week. Brinkmann said Diamond Pet Foods will become a leader in the industry in monitoring the safety of its food.

The company has ordered its grain dealer to stop accepting corn from South Carolina, where the tainted corn originated. Instead, the dealer must ship corn in sealed containers from other states.

Since setting up a special call center Dec. 26, the company has received more than 10,000 phone calls.

The investigation into the tainted pet food continues. The recalled pet food had been shipped to South Carolina, 22 other states and at least at least 29 countries.

Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305 or jduplessis@thestate.com [mailto:jduplessis@thestate.com]

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Copyright (c) 2006, The State, Columbia, S.C.

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