Ben Mankertz, General Manager for Fold Hill Foods Ltd: “We are alarmed and deeply saddened to learn of reports from the Food & Veterinary Authorities of some health issues in cats. As cat owners ourselves, we fully understand how upsetting and stressful this situation is for families and although diet has not been confirmed as the cause, we would prefer to act now to ensure the absolute safety of cats. As one of the leading pet food manufacturers in the UK, ensuring your pet’s safety is our priority and therefore we have chosen to recall the ranges of cat food that we manufacture for the brands who have been identified. We feel this is the safest course of action until an exact cause of the issue has been found.”
As I understand it Folds Hill Foods Ltd. make products for other pet food manufacturers. They are behind the scenes. This is a precautionary measure out of an abundance of caution. There is no link at the moment (June 16, 2021) between the foods and this disease as far as I am aware.
The Food Standards Agency said: “There is concern on the safety of the products listed above. There has been an increase in cases of pancytopenia in cats and there is a possible link to the cat food products listed above. Pancytopenia is a very rare condition wherein the number of blood cells (red, white and platelets) rapidly decreases, causing serious illness.”
Three links to the PDF files which contain the recall info listing the foods:
- Pets at Home Recall Fact Sheet June 16, 2021
- Product Recall Sainsbury’s Hypoallergenic food
- FOLD HILL FOODS LTD IS RECALLING A NUMBER OF PRODUCTS IT MANUFACTURES ON BEHALF OF SELECTED PARTNER BRANDS.
Note: This is a link to another website. Sometimes they break. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
Pancytopenia in cats
Pancytopenia in cats is rare. The number of red, white blood cells and platelets rapidly decrease causing serious illness. This can lead to peripheral destruction of cells and/or the bone marrow is harmed (my understanding). There are many infectious, immune-mediated and neoplastic conditions associated with pancytopenia in dogs and cats. It is a disease which is not listed in a very thick book that I have in which I use as a reference work all the time. This indicates that it truly is a rare condition which results in a problem in the blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow.
SOME MORE ON CAT FOOD RECALLS:
