Officials check into cats’ deaths

Nevada veterinary officials are getting tissue tested for owners of two cats whose owners fear their pets died of tainted pet food.

The cats belonged to residents of Washoe County who requested the lab tests and are paying for the tests, said Anette Rink, a veterinarian and supervisor of the Nevada Animal Disease and Food Safety Lab. The cat tissue was sent to an outside lab last week, she said.

The Food and Drug Administration has confirmed 15 pet deaths around the country, but The Associated Press has said anecdotal evidence suggests hundreds of cats and dogs might have died from kidney failure from the tainted food.

The FDA has reported pet food recalls by several manufacturers, including those sold under the brands Iams, Eukanuba, Mighty Dog and Science Diet. About 100 brands of cat and dog food have been recalled.

ChemNutra of Las Vegas on Tuesday reported that it recalled 873 tons of the wheat gluten, a form of protein, it imported from China. The Las Vegas company said it shipped the wheat gluten to three pet manufacturers and one distributor.

FDA officials last week blocked wheat gluten imports from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. of the eastern Chinese city of Xuzhou and said the gluten imports contained melamine.

The Chinese company accused of selling chemically contaminated wheat gluten to ChemNutra on Wednesday said it was investigating.

ChemNutra said that Xuzhou Anying never reported the presence of melamine, a chemical found in plastics and pesticides, in the content analysis it provided.

"We are still investigating," said Mao Lijun, Xuzhou Anying's general manager.

Rink said she is skeptical about claims of pet food poisoning.

She noted the huge number of pets that probably ate the allegedly bad food, the few number of pet deaths attributed to the pet food and the lack of any identified toxin that caused the pet illnesses.

Pet owners often think their pets die from poisoning, but that rarely is the cause, she said.

She is pessimistic that the lab test will provide any definitive information on the cause of the cat's deaths. Further tests could be conducted, but lab tests on animal tissue can run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars, she said.

Nevada has no confirmed deaths of dogs or cats related to the pet food poison investigation, she said.

"At this point, the whole pet food recall deal is really a non-event. We don't even know what they are supposed to have died from," Rink said. "I'm not getting overly excited at this point."

ChemNutra has a business license from Las Vegas, city spokeswoman Diana Paul said in an e-mail Wednesday. The company indicated that its administrative office was in Las Vegas, but it warehouses materials in Los Angeles and St. Louis.

Scott Anderson, Nevada deputy secretary of state, could find no indications that ChemNutra registered with his office as an out-of-state corporation as required, but he said company officials could have done so using a name other than ChemNutra.

Violations of the registration rule are reported to the governor's office, which would refer the matter to the Nevada attorney general's office or the local district attorney's office, Anderson said.

He was not aware of ChemNutra prior to a call Wednesday and said his office had taken no action regarding ChemNutra.

ChemNutra previously registered as a corporation in California, but the company surrendered its registration, indicating that it went out of business, a spokeswoman for the California secretary of state's office said.

Attempts to contact pet food manufacturers for comment were unsuccessful.

An FDA official in Los Angeles referred a request for comment to Washington, D.C., officials, who did not return calls Wednesday.

Devon Blaine, a California public relations representative retained to represent ChemNutra, said Wednesday she had no new information on the tainted pet food. Attempts to contact ChemNutra at its Las Vegas office were unsuccessful.

Hill's Pet Nutrition of Topeka, Kan., said it established a communications center with 70 veterinarians who are calling, sending e-mails and faxes to 25,000 veterinary hospitals and clients.

Other manufacturers include Menu Foods, a private-label pet food maker based in Canada, and Nestle Purina PetCare.