NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a story on the Daily Mail online website which adds to the previous information disseminated on the Internet and on my websites about the catastrophe that has befallen hundreds of domestic cats in the UK who had the misfortune to eat a cat food which it is believed was contaminated with mycotoxins, specifically, a fungus on cereal. Cereals are added to dry cat food which may surprise people if they’ve not read about it already. It sounds highly unnatural to add cereal to cat food because they are obligate carnivores as we all know. But they do it because it’s more profitable.
THERE ARE SOME MORE PAGES ON THIS RECALL AND OTHERS AT THE BASE OF THE PAGE.
Anyway, to get to the point: if you’ve not picked up on the story it would be sensible to read a page that I wrote some days ago on the topic which includes links to the list of recalled cat food is concerned. There appears to have been a dilatory response from some retailers in notifying cat owners of the recall and in withdrawing the foods from their shelves. It appears that even after it was known that this food is harmful that some retailers were still selling it. That is tragic if it is true.
Another tragedy on this horrible story concerns Joanna Michael, 50, who lost her nine-year-old tabby cat Cameron on Saturday according to the newspaper. She had thrown away her Pets at Home AVA pet food, which was part of the foods to be recalled, on June 15. Confusion: the contaminated food according to the picture on this page was Applaws ‘grain free’. I don’t understand as this implies it contained no cereal.
Apparently, there is a video online which shows Cameron gasping for breath. He was healthy 48 hours earlier. He was euthanized by a veterinarian. It appears that the mycotoxin damaged Cameron’s bone marrow where red, white and T-cells are created. The damage was present but the symptoms were not apparent until sometime later. That is my interpretation of the story.
In another twist to the story, Mrs Michael provided Cameron with the contaminated food unbeknownst to her for a period of two weeks only. She thought that he was all right and had survived the crisis. She said that “It did not cross my mind to get him checked when the recall was issued. He had not even had half of the bag and was perfectly healthy”.
Cameron stopped eating. He was given steroids (a desparate last resort) but deteriorated rapidly overnight. He was diagnosed with feline pancytopenia, which is the disease caused by this mycotoxin and which stops the production of red, white and T-cells, as I understand the disease. The veterinarian concerned is convinced that the food killed Cameron. The vet told Mrs Michael that it can take months for the illness to appear.
Mrs Michael believes that the FSA (Food Standards Agency) are dragging their feet. I would agree. The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) notified the FSA about an increase in cases on May 24 but the government regulator took three weeks to issue a recall. If that is true it has probably cost lives. The current recorded count is well over 300 with an approximate 60% fatality rate once a cat contracts the disease. The true number is expected to be much higher.
Dr. Adams, who lives in south-east London said: “I think the FSA have been very slow on this. They have been dragging their feet. I messaged people on social media and within a few days had established a link between this brand of food and the illness. Why were we able to do this, but the FSA couldn’t?”
The products concerned were manufactured at Fold Hill Foods. In other words, there is one source of the food which is this manufacturing unit. They say that they are fully cooperating with the FSA and the RVC.
SOME MORE ON THIS AND OTHER RECALLS:
