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Dog Food Recall Linked to Mad Cow Disease

U.S. consumers are being asked to return dog food that may have come from a Canadian cow that tested positive for mad cow disease.

The suspect food, in 50 pound bags, was produced in Canada by Champion Pet Food of Morinville, Alberta. If found, the food should be held for pickup.

Pet Pantry International of Carson City, Nev., which sells the products by phone or e-mail, said customers should search for two products: "Maintenance Diet" with a "use by" date of "17FEB04" and "Beef with Barley" with a date of "05MAR04."

The voluntary return is a precaution to prevent discarded dog food from getting mixed with feed for cattle, goats or sheep, the Associated Press reports. Customers who bought dog food since February should check their supplies and, if found, should call the company at 1-800-381-7387. Pet Pantry also is using sales records to contact consumers.

Meanwhile, Canadian authorities have slaughtered almost 400 cattle from five of the 17 farms or feed lots quarantined in the investigation. The animals' brains were sent for testing to pinpoint the source of the country's first outbreak of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

The outbreak, detected last week in one Alberta cow that was slaughtered in January, caused the United States and other countries to close their markets to Canadian beef products and raised questions about industry regulation.

Agriculture officials now say all 192 animals in the herd of the infected cow have tested negative. In addition to that herd, another 180 have been slaughtered for testing and genetic tracing to find where and when the infected cow was born, according to Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

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-- Linda Searing

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Last updated 5/27/2003