Recall linked to rise in cat kidney failures

WASHINGTON – Cases of kidney failure among cats rose by 30 percent during the three months that pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical was sold, one of the nation’s largest chains of veterinary hospitals reported Monday.

Banfield, The Pet Hospital, said an analysis of its database, compiled from records collected by its more than 615 veterinary hospitals, suggests that three out of every 10,000 cats and dogs seen in its clinics developed kidney failure during the time the melamine-contaminated pet food was on the market. There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The veterinary hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase when compared with background rates. It’s not clear whether those animals ate the contaminated food, though it seems likely.

“It has meaning, when you see a peak like that. We see so many pets here, and it coincided with the recall period,” said veterinarian Hugh Lewis, who oversees the mining of Banfield’s database to do clinical studies. The chain continues to share its data with the Food and Drug Administration.

In the three weeks since the first pet food was recalled, Banfield vets have examined 1,605 cats and dogs reported to have eaten the recalled food. That is less than 1 percent of pets examined. Just six of those animals – five cats and one dog – have died.

FDA officials previously have said the database compiled by the huge veterinary practice would probably provide the most authoritative picture of the harm done by the tainted cat and dog food.

From its findings, Banfield officials calculated a kidney failure rate during the recall period of .03 percent for pets it examined, although there was no discernible uptick among dogs.

At least six pet food companies have recalled products made with imported Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical.

Measuring the tainted food’s impact on animal health has proved an elusive goal. Previous estimates have ranged from the FDA’s admittedly low tally of roughly 16 confirmed deaths to the more than 3,000 unconfirmed cases logged by one Web site.

“On a percentage basis it’s not breathtaking, but unfortunately it’s a number that, if it was your pet that was affected, it’s too high,” veterinarian Nancy Zimmerman, Banfield’s senior medical adviser, said of the newly estimated incidence rate.