Don’t Panic! (Yes, there is another pet food recall)
Recalls happen all the time. For any number of reasons. If you think I’m kidding about that, you should check out the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) recall website! Some recalls get more media attention than others. This recall is hitting the news, and while it doesn’t impact our side of the country yet, it is still something to be aware of.
To prove to the manufacturer that you (or your pet) have been affected by the object in question, you really have to have the packaging. The lot or production number and best by dates are possibly more important than the entire packaging. Where to find the numbers will vary with different types of food.
The current recall is due to possible Salmonella contamination. Salmonella can make pets and people sick (think bad stomach flu) and requires medical attention. Not all pet foods are included in this recall, in fact, it has been traced to one dry dog food production plant. Yet the list of affected products continues to grow. Hopefully this recall won’t continue to snowball. Diamond Pet Food claims that most of the recall is precautionary, only four bags of food have actually tested positive for Salmonella, and they have suspended production at the plant in question.
So far, the recalled food is only known to have shipped from the manufacturer, Diamond Pet Food, to the Eastern United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Sample of production codes recalled
The following brands of dry dog food have been affected by the recall:
- Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul
- Country Value
- Diamond
- Diamond Naturals
- Premium Edge
- Professional
- 4Health
- Taste of the Wild
- Apex
- Canidae
- Kirkland Signature
Fluorescent Cats To Fight AIDS
Fluorescent kitty pictures started flying around social networking sites recently. The pictures are supercute, but did leave some folks wondering, “is this news or perhaps just seasonal, after all Halloween is just around the corner.” Wonder no more, faithful readers, the glowing kitty is not just festive, but news! This research (ahem) sheds some light on possible immunizations therapies — that will benefit our feline family as much as our human brethren.
This article was reprinted from the American Animal Hospital Association. Enjoy.
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a genome-based immunization strategy to fight feline AIDS and illuminate ways to combat human HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The goal is to create cats with intrinsic immunity to the feline AIDS virus. The findings — called fascinating and landmark by one reviewer — appear in the current online issue of Nature Methods.
Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) causes AIDS in cats as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does in people: by depleting the body’s infection-fighting T-cells. The feline and human versions of key proteins that potently defend mammals against virus invasion — termed restriction factors — are ineffective against FIV and HIV respectively. The Mayo team of physicians, virologists, veterinarians and gene therapy researchers, along with collaborators in Japan, sought to mimic the way evolution normally gives rise over vast time spans to protective protein versions. They devised a way to insert effective monkey versions of them into the cat genome.
“One of the best things about this biomedical research is that it is aimed at benefiting both human and feline health,” says Eric Poeschla, M.D., Mayo molecular biologist and leader of the international study. “It can help cats as much as people.”
Dr. Poeschla treats patients with HIV and researches how the virus replicates. HIV/AIDS has killed over 30 million people and left countless children orphaned, with no effective vaccine on the horizon. Less well known is that millions of cats also suffer and die from FIV/AIDS each year. Since the project concerns ways introduced genes can protect species against viruses, the knowledge and technology it produces might eventually assist conservation of wild feline species, all 36 of which are endangered.
The technique is called gamete-targeted lentiviral transgenesis — essentially, inserting genes into feline oocytes (eggs) before sperm fertilization. Succeeding with it for the first time in a carnivore, the team inserted a gene for a rhesus macaque restriction factor known to block cell infection by FIV, as well as a jellyfish gene for tracking purposes. The latter makes the offspring cats glow green.
The macaque restriction factor, TRIMCyp, blocks FIV by attacking and disabling the virus’s outer shield as it tries to invade a cell. The researchers know that works well in a culture dish and want to determine how it will work in vivo. This specific transgenesis (genome modification) approach will not be used directly for treating people with HIV or cats with FIV, but it will help medical and veterinary researchers understand how restriction factors can be used to advance gene therapy for AIDS caused by either virus.
The method for inserting genes into the feline genome is highly efficient, so that virtually all offspring have the genes. And the defense proteins are made throughout the cat’s body. The cats with the protective genes are thriving and have produced kittens whose cells make the proteins, thus proving that the inserted genes remain active in successive generations.
The other researchers are Pimprapar Wongsrikeao, D.V.M., Ph.D.; Dyana Saenz, Ph.D.; and Tommy Rinkoski, all of Mayo Clinic; and Takeshige Otoi, Ph.D., of Yamaguchi University, Japan. The research was supported by Mayo Clinic and the Helen C. Levitt Foundation. Grants from the National Institutes of Health supported key prior technology developments in the laboratory.
On The 7 O’Clock Mews
This past Thursday, there was excitement aplenty at North 
Portland Veterinary Hospital.
Just after 7 am, some kittens found themselves in the road just down the street from our office. Initially thought to have been thrown from a moving vehicle, the latest developments indicate that the kittens may have been stowaways. Oregon Humane Society is investigating.
One of these kittens found her way to us for treatment and fostering, we call her “Penny On The Block.” News crews from Channels 2, 8, and 12 came by to get the scoop, interviewing Kim F. our camera-ready CVT and getting footage of Penny. Kitten abandonment and abuse rarely make headlines, but we suddenly found ourselves at the epicenter of a public interest piece.
Immediately after the story aired, the phone started ringing off the hook. People wanted to know more information about the vehicle, some desperately wanted to adopt the grey and white survivor, and others just wanted understand how this could happen.
Regardless of how the litter of kittens came to be in the middle of Peninsular, they bring home the message that there is a huge surplus pet population in Portland. The sad reality is that animals are abandoned everyday, in fields and parks, at empty houses, schools, and veterinary hospitals. If you’d like to help:
- Have your pets spayed and neutered. Encourage friends and family members to do the same for their pets.
- Call Oregon Humane Society, or other rescue organizations, and ask to volunteer with their group and become a foster parent to other abandoned or injured pets. They need lots of help.
- Support groups like Feral Cat Coalition, who provide spay and neuter services for feral or stray cats.
- When you witness a case of abuse or neglect, call the Oregon Humane Society and file a report with their officer.
