[ RadSafe ] Re: radsafe Digest, Vol 180, Issue 4 - Pet Food Irradiation Issue

[Steven Dapra]

Jan. 19, 2009

         The ABC report (7:30 Report program) says only this about pet food 
irradiation:

BRONWYN HERBERT [reporter]:
Under Australian quarantine laws all imported pet food has to be irradiated 
or heat treated, to kill off potential diseases.
Pet food is required to be irradiated at a rate of 50 times that required 
on some imported fruits.
Unlike food for human consumption there are no laws that require pet food 
to be labelled as irradiated.
Australian quarantine declined to speak to the 7.30 Report but in a 
statement says Australia's irradiation standards are based on international 
guidelines and on advice from the Australian Animal Health Laboratory.
The owners of this pet store have sold hundreds of kilograms of Orijen and 
say even if irradiation is to blame the company was too slow to react.

TERRY HORSFALL, PET STORE OWNER: For Champion Pet Foods to be aware that 
there is a potential problem and say nothing, I think is totally irresponsible.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Champion says its products were safe when they left the 
factory and it took time to understand the effects of irradiation.
Now, there is a list of ingredients but you don't know where those 
ingredients come from and you don't also know if the food has been 
irradiated because they don't have to put that on the label, and so that's 
what happened with Stella.

(end of quote from the ABC article)

         Stella is a cat mentioned in the broadcast that is supposed to 
have become ill as a result of eating cat food.  According to Bronwyn 
Herbert, the reporter, "veterinarians strongly suspect the cause is a diet 
of gourmet pet food."  The pet food is made in Canada and imported into 
Australia.  This seems to be a case of 'my pet is sick, my pet ate 
irradiated food, hence the irradiated food caused my pet to get sick.'  The 
pet food manufacturers aren't helping matters any -- they are threatening 
to sue anyone who says anything bad about their product.

         Leo Lowe asks if "high level irradiation" can cause significant 
reduction in vitamin A, thus leading to the illnesses suffered by such cats 
as Stella.  According to the article, she lost the use of her back legs and 
they are now paralyzed.  Is this a symptom of significantly reduced vitamin 
A, and can irradiation cause a significant reduction in vitamin A?

         If there is anything to this business of irradiated food causing 
sick pets it's not possible to tell it by this one TV news article.

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com


At 02:27 PM 1/19/09 -0500, Leo M. Lowe wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I found the record of the broadcast you note below  at 
>http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2464272.htm#
>
>Are you absolutely sure that there is not something to  this?  As I 
>indicated in a previous message, go the Origen website at 
>http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/about/ and click on "Australia Only" toward 
>the top left-hand side of the page.   Based on the information updates, it 
>appears that the pet food company has done a great deal of research into 
>this issue, including using veterinary specialists and toxicologists.
>
>Is it not possible that the high-level irradiation caused the effects 
>noted (e.g., significant reduction in Vitamin A, etc) in cats fed solely 
>with this pet food?    I suppose more research will tell.
>
>Regards,
>Leo Lowe
>
>>------------------------------
>>
>>Message: 3
>>Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:13:30 +0900
>>From: Ivor Surveyor <isurveyor at vianet.net.au>
>>Subject: [ RadSafe ] Pet Food
>>To: Know_Nukes at yahoogroups.com,,radsafe at radlab.nl
>>Message-ID: <20090115131332.776B7441BB at poplet1.per.eftel.com>
>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>>
>>   The video "Pet Food Industry In Trouble." is still on the ABC site,
>>it is not easy to locate.
>>
>>http://www.abc.net.au/
>>
>>The best way to find it is from the ABC home page, click on TV ABC1.
>>
>>Then try program website and scroll down to find programs A_Z.
>>
>>Click on A_Z, then on to 0-9. This should lead you to the 7:30
>>report.  Finally you will find it is a "Vodcast" dated 12-Jan-09.
>>
>>To clear up one other matter; as a tax payer I am concerned that a
>>public broadcaster founded by my money is able to publish such drivel.
>>
>>Ivor Surveyor
>>[ isurveyor at vianet.net.au ]
>>
>>**********************************