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More than 56,000 hogs - including 3,000 from four northern Utah farms - suspected of eating contaminated feed laced with the industrial chemical melamine have been released for slaughter, federal officials said Tuesday.
The hogs in Utah and six other states had been in quarantine limbo for nearly three weeks while investigators worked to confirm that the melamine, used to make plastics, was excreted in the animals' urine and had not contaminated the meat, officials said during a teleconference from Washington, D.C.
Tests and so-called risk assessment studies indicate "the meat is safe for human consumption," said Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Risks are so low that a 130-pound individual would have to eat 132 pounds of food containing melamine in a single day before the chemical posed a health threat, federal officials said. In addition, the impacted hogs from Utah, California, New York, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kansas and Illinois represent only a tiny fraction of the 100 million hogs processed each year nationwide.
In Utah, tests on remaining feed stored at the four farms in question did not show the presence of melamine, said state veterinarian Earl Rogers. The suspected feed, however, has been hauled to a landfill as a precaution.
Still on hold are about 80,000 breeder chickens in Indiana and an undetermined number of fish from two commercial farms in Hawaii and Washington, where contaminated feed had been shipped. The chickens and fish are being withheld from processing while more studies are conducted.
The contained ingredients had been imported from two Chinese companies that had spiked melamine into ground wheat flour, which, in turn, had been mislabeled as more-expensive wheat gluten and protein rice concentrate. The companies have been closed down and its executives detained by Chinese officials.
The Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation of animal and pet feeds in March after receiving 18,000 complaints from people who said their dogs and cats had been sickened or died. More than 100 pet food brands have been recalled, including some varieties manufactured by Ogden-based American Nutrition Inc.
For more information on recalled pet food brands, visit http://www.fda.gov.