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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2007

Melamine fed to fish

 

VANCOUVER--The potential for global ecological disaster as result of cheating in international trade was illustrated on May 8, 2007, when the Vancouver-based Canadian division of Skretting International recalled fish food sold to 25 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife hatcheries because it contained melamine.

As melamine is water-soluable, it does not accumulate in the bodies of fish, unlike heavy metals such as mercury and chemical compounds, such as PCBs.

"We do not believe this poses any significant human health threat," said FDA food safety chief David Acheson.

But melamine itself was not the cause for worry. The greater concern was what if the contaminant had been more volatile, longer-persisting, or biologically active?

Skretting International, founded in 1899, sells fish food to hatcheries and aquaculture operations from Norway to Chile. Many Skretting customers raise fish in sea pens, from which a disease or contaminant could spread to the wild.

This time the problem was detected because the entire animal feed industry was on alert as result of pet food recalls that started on March 16, 2007.

If the contaminant had not sickened thousands of pets, whose vigilant caretakers alerted veterinarians and food manufacturers, factory farmers of fish, chickens, and pigs might not have been aware of anything wrong, because those animals are typically slaughtered before health effects that are passed through food chains can become apparent.

Melamine was reportedly found only in a Skretting starter feed prepared for juvenile salmon and trout. As the fish grow, they are switched to a different feed formula.

In addition, the tainted material from which the feed as made was apparently used only at the Vancouver plant, not throughout the Skretting chain.

The melamine pet food contamination saga spread to Canada on April 10, when pet food suspected of making animals ill was traced to the Menu Foods packaging plant in Streetsville, Ontario, almost a month after recalls of food packed in two U.S. plants started.

The Agriculture and Food Laboratory at the University of Guelph in Ontario achieved a breakthrough in investigating the issue about a week later, finding that cyanuric acid, found in urine samples from poisoned animals, interacts with melamine to form crystals that appear to block kidney function.

Only about 1% of the melamine-contaminated wheat and rice gluten that is believed to have been sold to animal food manufacturers is known to have gone to Canada.