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About 2,500 hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food on four northern Utah farms are slated to be destroyed, government officials said Thursday.
Nearly 3,500 hogs in six other states face the same fate.
A small number of the hogs in Utah may have been sold to family members and neighbors. But the meat did not get into the mainstream human food supply, said Larry Lewis, spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food during a news conference in Salt Lake City.
It is unclear whether any meat from animals that ate the tainted feed made it into the U.S. food supply, said officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a teleconference call from Washington, D.C.
About 6,000 hogs are under quarantine at farms in Utah, California, Kansas, Oklahoma, New York, South Carolina and North Carolina. All the impacted animals will be destroyed and buried as a precaution, said David Elder, director of enforcement in the FDA's Office of Regular Affairs.
The likelihood of humans getting sick from eating meat tainted with the contaminated feed is extremely low, said Elder. The feed contained wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate, imported from China, that was laced with the industrial chemical melamine.
In Utah, officials found that some pet feed manufactured at the Ogden-based American Nutrition contained melamine. Officials said animals that consumed feed from the plant will be destroyed.
"We are taking this action to error on the side of caution," said Utah Agricultural Commissioner Leonard Blackham. "The investigation is continuing, but this could be the last of it."
The USDA will compensate farmers for their losses.
The estimated value of the 2,500 Utah hogs to be destroyed is $500,000. Most of the animals remain on the four farms and about 50 hogs were located at an Ogden slaughter house.
Since mid-March, pet food companies have recalled more than 100 brands of dog and cat food. The FDA has received thousands of complaints and an unknown number of pets fell ill or died after eating feed made with the rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten.
Before officials determined the feed had been laced with melamine, feed salvaged from manufacturing plants was sold to hog farms. Salvaged feed includes ingredients that fell from loose pet-food bags or swept from floors.
The affected hogs in Utah represent 1 percent of the state's total production. Utah's largest hog producer, Circle Four Farms, does not use pet food in its feed - which primarily is made from domestic corn and soybeans. The Beaver County farm raises about 1 million pigs annually.
Nationally, about 100 million hogs are slaughtered and processed.
About melamine
* It is an industrial chemical detected in some pet foods
* Its source is believed to be rice protein concentrate imported from China
* Numerous cats and dogs have fallen ill or died after eating products made with the contaminated protein
* Melamine is not considered a human health concern, but it could have effects when combined with other compounds
Source: Food and Drug Administration