Pet-food recall: What the heck is aminopterin?
By Gina Spadafori
March 23, 2007
The ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center has just released more information:
Aminopterin, a toxin found in some rodenticides available outside the USA, is a folic acid antagonist, i.e. it disrupts the body’s ability to utilize folic acid. In animals, this can result in loss of appetite, diarrhea and weight loss. It may also cause leucopenia, which is a reduction in white blood cells, as well as birth defects.
Aminopterin is closely related in chemical structure and mechanism to a drug called methotrexate, which is used to treat some cancers, both in humans and animals. Renal failure has been reported in human patients receiving methotrexate. We do not know if aminopterin can cause renal failure in pets.
Based on these findings, the ASPCA does not recommend any change in treatment of animals affected; animals currently being treated for kidney failure suspected to be related to the ingestion of the contaminated food should stay on such treatment. Please follow your veterinarian’s advice.
It is unclear at this point in time how this toxin came into contact with the affected food. The ASPCA will continue to analyze the data on calls the APCC receives (which number between 400-700 daily on a wide range of substances), and release any new information it finds immediately.
Here’s the rest of the release.
As of 2 p.m. PT, the latest from the PetConnection.com database: 1188 deceased pets (713 cats/475 dogs). As always, remember these are self-reported numbers.
You can still enter your pet’s information into our database. And don’t forget we have information on renal failure and pet loss. And here is the link to the FDA site, which includes information on checking foods against the recall list and reporting your pet to the FDA (in addition to your veterinarian, as the AVMA is recommending, so your vet can report to the state vet and so up to the FDA). Again, good luck with all that. The government’s response so far seems to fall into the “heckuva job, Brownie” category.
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Thanks for the information on aminopterin. Here at the clinic where I work we are scrambling to find published data but of course there isn’t much to find. After all, why should there be? Who knew this was something we’d have to be treating for!
Comment by Amanda — March 23, 2007 @ 3:21 pm
FROM SCORECARD.ORG
Developmental Toxicant
Reproductive Toxicant
GASTROINTESTINAL OR LIVER TOXICANT
NEUROTOXICANT
SKIN OR SENSE ORGAN TOXICANT
THIS IS A WAKE UP CALL. GET THE FACTS ABOUT WHAT’S IN PETFOOD. GET THE FACTS ABOUT YOUR PETS REAL NUTRITIONAL NEEDS. AND DON’T BEGIN WITH THE VET COMMUNITY THAT PROFIT OFF YOUR SICK ANIMAL WHILE PIMPING CRAP FOOD FOR THE PETFOOD INDUSTRY. CAT OWNERS, CHECK HOLISTICAT.COM. MANY EXCELLENT BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE SHELF AT b&n.
Comment by 4PAWS — March 23, 2007 @ 3:32 pm
Link to the Press Conference by Menu Foods - RAW FOOTAGE
http://www.9wsyr.com/mediacent.....oid=193689
I’m making notes on the content on my blog as I watch it.
Comment by Kim — March 23, 2007 @ 3:40 pm
“The government’s response so far seems to fall into the “heckuva job, Brownie” category.”
Makes you wonder if Barney, the scottish terrier, were eating from the pet food aisles instead of the White House Kitchen, would his parents be more alarmed?
Comment by Patti — March 23, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
will leukovorin(citrovorum factor) reverse aminopterin as it does in the high dose methotrexate/citrovorum rescue protocols once used (perhaps still) in cancer treatment?
Comment by Steve Rothman — March 23, 2007 @ 11:27 pm
Loss my dog Tuesday night due to kidney failure from a poisonous toxin. At the time she had eaten some of the ol roy beef and the eukanuba beef and gravy this has hit our family hard and i have done a television interview and newspaper interview to try and plead for regulations to be put on these companies
Comment by amberC — March 24, 2007 @ 5:36 am
I have been inundated with calls from clients of my retail shop, which sells a super-premium pet food (not on the recall list). People are rightly upset about their pets being exposed to poisons. My personal observation is that, although it is tragic, it points to the ease with which humans could also be exposed to the same situation, although, admittedly, FDA guidelines in the case of human foods are supposedly more stringent.
Comment by Linda Johnson — March 24, 2007 @ 4:13 pm
This really brings to light how important it is to monitor companies. My sister buys a dry dog food which uses organic chicken. Or I should say used to. She read the ingredients when she first purchased the food about a year ago. After this poisoning with Menu Foods she decided she had better read the ingredients again. Now there is no mention of organic chicken.
I buy mostly organic food and much of the bulk grains and beans come from China. I have to say I do not have much confidence in them now.
And I still feel that this may have a genetic engineering link. What if China was experminenting with pharma crops. They may have implanted an anti-cancer trait or a rodenticide trait into wheat. I am having a hard time seeing how such a vast amount of wheat could have been contaminated otherwise.
This article is a bit beyond my level of expertise, but it does illustrate the experimenting going on.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/88/11/4572.pdf
And this one from I-SIS illustrates many of the documented poisonings from ge experiments.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMFood.....olding.php
Comment by Angela Flynn — March 24, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
This entire scenario is suspicious. Weeks after Menu Foods knew there was a problem, but just prior to their annual meeting, and on a Friday, they announce the recall. Mystery is solved in exactly one week, blaming a “rat poison”, which is originally an old-line anti-leukemic drug. My old pharmacology textbook describes the toxicologic findings in fatal feeding of Aminopterin to animals, and the picture is NOT what we have all read has been happening recently. This fact should have been recognized immediately by oncologists, and by toxicologists, and by second and third year medical students, maybe by veterinarian students.
What is going on? Is this a planned cover-up? I have been developing evidence, since the day after the first announcement from samples on the recall list, that there is another culprit involved and which has does have a pathological picture closer to that now being observed.
If anyone has material from sick animals, like litter with urine, consider placing it in a clean glass or hard plastic container. If you have a deceased pet and willing to have an autopsy done, tissue slides for pathologist studies would be very helpful. We need trails of evidence, and the companies and government cannot be trusted. It is very easy to spike lab samples. We consumers may have to solve this mystery ourselves.
Anyone willing to help may email me at healthenergy@netzero.net.
Comment by Ronald Wempen — March 24, 2007 @ 10:41 pm
our 2 1/2 yr old rottweiler had to be put down in jan 07. 12/26 he became sick overnight. drank water like he couldn’t get enough. he stopped eating and he went downhill. his vet said he didn’t know what was wrong except his blood wasn’t right. he could hold his urine. he continued to worsen and so we took him for a second opinion. he weighed 115 lbs. dec 26 and within 10 days was 95 and by the second opinion he was 80 lbs.
the second vet said he thought it was cancer but the blood work wasn’t back prove it. he kept our dog overnight and that was the last we saw him. the vet called very early the next morning and said he was convusing and had to be put to sleep. Nikko was a family member. when we got him our grandchildren were 3 and 1 years old. Nikko was their friend. they played with him everyday. he as a healthy perfect example of his breed. and he loved us. My grand daughter now 3 and 5 pray everynight for their missed friend. there are still tears when we think of him.
THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. IT MAKES ME THINK IF OUR FOOD WILL BE NEXT.
Comment by sandra — March 26, 2007 @ 10:53 am
I DON’T TRUST THE COMPANYS TO TELL US THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT THE RECALL, I DON’T AND WON’T FEED MY DOGS AND CAT ANY BRAND OF DRY FOOD EITHER, NOT UNTILL THIS IS CLEARED UP. I AM FEEDONG THEM TURKEY AND BROWN RICE 2 TIMES A DAY. I KNOW THIS DOESN’T HAVE POISON IN IT, I EAT IT FIRST TO MAKE SURE. BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY! GOD BLESS! JANICE K.
Comment by Janice Janulavich — March 26, 2007 @ 1:30 pm