Makes you wonder if some of this might have found its way into koi food. From seattlepi.com
Tainted feed pulled from fish hatcheries
Risk to consumers is low, state officials say
State Department of Fish and Wildlife officials on Tuesday pulled fish feed laced with an industrial chemical linked to the ongoing recall of pet foods, though federal officials say it contains levels too low to pose a danger to consumers.
Workers at six fish hatcheries in Washington stopped feeding Bio-Oregon brand starter food to juvenile fall chinook salmon, steelhead and rainbow trout Tuesday, after learning hours earlier that a batch of that feed contained wheat gluten spiked with melamine.
While none of the state's salmon farms use the brand of fish feed that was tainted, hatcheries do.
"Since we've learned of this issue, I've had all remaining inventory pulled from usage, marked, set aside and not to be used," said John Kerwin, the state Fish and Wildlife hatcheries division manager.
American Gold Seafoods, which operates several fish farms in Washington, said it checked with its main fish-feed supplier, Ewos, to make sure its feed was not affected.
Ross Grierson, president of EWOS Canada, the supplier, said, "We don't use wheat gluten in any of our fish feed from any source."
"We're working to set up independent testing of fish," said Kevin Bright, American Gold's permit coordinator.
Skretting, a Vancouver, B.C.-based firm that manufacturers fish feed, in a news release said testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found "a very low level of melamine in a batch of Bio-Oregon brand fish feed shipped to the United States."
The feed contained what was purported to be wheat gluten produced in China in July and imported into Vancouver in August, said Paul Mayers, executive director of the animal products directorate of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The material was actually wheat flour spiked by melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear more protein rich than it was, U.S. officials said.
Skretting initiated a recall of all feed related to that batch and contacted customers but declined to reveal who they were. Erin Agostini of Skretting referred questions to the FDA.
Mayers said the feed, intended for very young fish, was sold to about 60 fish farms and hatcheries in Canada. FDA spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said the agency is investigating where the feed went and whether any farmed fish that ate the feed entered the U.S. food supply.
After pigs and chickens, the farmed fish mark the third food animal given contaminated feed. Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, said the contamination level is expected to be too low to pose a danger to humans. Like the chicken and hogs, the FDA said, the smelt should pose no hazard to humans because only a small portion of their diet included melamine.
At least one firm's fish were still too young and small to be sold, Acheson said. Investigators were visiting other U.S. aquaculture farms that used the contaminated feed. Farmed fish typically are sold for direct consumption or for stocking lakes and streams.
Both the FDA and Skretting informed Fish and Wildlife Tuesday that Skretting had purchased feed from the contaminated batch. The batch was Bio-Oregon's small pellets made for juvenile fish, Kerwin said.
He didn't know Tuesday how much the state ordered or used. The agency watches fish closely and had not seen any related problems, he said.
The earliest fish will be released from the hatcheries this year, so the agency plans to monitor the salmon and trout, but he was leaning toward releasing fish this year as planned. "We have something called biodilution here. They get very little of this feed. They grow a whole lot before they're available for harvest," he said.
Fish at six state hatcheries were fed the product. They include Hoodsport and George Adams on the Hood Canal, Lewis River, Speelyai and Vancouver in the lower Columbia River and Lyons Ferry on the Snake River.
Tainted ingredients imported from China were used in pet foods that either sickened or killed an unknown number of household pets. Since March 16, more than 100 brands of pet food contaminated with melamine have been recalled.
The supposed wheat gluten was exported directly from China to Canada in a deal brokered by a U.S. company, ChemNutra Inc., Acheson said. ChemNutra also supplied the ingredient to a Canadian dog and cat food company, Menu Foods, that has since recalled dozens of brands.
China state media reported Wednesday that managers from two companies that exported contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein blamed for the deaths of U.S. dogs and cats have been detained.
A second industrial chemical, cyanuric acid, may also have been intentionally added to animal feed by producers seeking larger profits, according to The New York Times. Cyanuric acid is often used as a chemical stabilizer in swimming pools.
05-09-2007
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