‘One of the saddest episodes I’ve seen’
Scientist who linked cat deaths and irradiation calls for pet food ban. By Eugene Bingham.
A scientist who discovered a connection between irradiation of pet food and cat deaths is calling for a ban on the process.
Dr Georgina Child made a link between batches of cat food treated with gamma irradiation and the deaths and neurological damage to dozens of cats in Australia in 2009.
‘‘It was one of the saddest episodes I have seen in my career as a neurologist and one that was very difficult to attract attention to at the time – and I hope I never see the equivalent again,’’ says Child, a veterinary neurologist based in Sydney.
‘‘More than 35 cats died or were euthanised and many others had permanent neurologic deficits.’’
Australia stopped the irradiation of imported cat food in 2009, although it still allows dog food to be treated – in New Zealand there is nothing stopping any pet food from being processed.
Last week, the Sunday StarTimes reported on concerns about imported dried jerky dog treats which have been linked to illness and death in dogs around the world, including in New Zealand.
While no-one has been able to establish why the treats appear to be causing the dogs to become unwell, one theory is that it is the irradiation treatment.
Popular dog treats imported from Asia and sold in New Zealand, including from the Masterpet brand, Vitapet, say on the label they have been irradiated.
The company says it applies quality assurance standards and says its primary concern is proving an ‘‘uncompromisingly safe product’’.
‘‘Masterpet will continue to follow government biosecurity requirements [on irradiation],’’ says Dr Barry Hosking, Masterpet’s head of R&D for Australia and New Zealand.
Irradiation was a ‘‘very common’’ biosecurity measure to ‘‘destroy unwanted bacteria and pests’’.
Child says irradiated pet food should not be sold.
‘‘The irradiation of all food that may be eaten by cats, which includes dog food, should be banned.’’
After the cat food scare,
Biosecurity Australia required irradiated dog food to carry a warning that it shouldn’t be fed to cats.
‘‘Cats, however, says Child.
Dogs which have become sick after eating imported jerky treats experience problems with their kidneys, a condition known as acquired Fanconi syndrome – whereas the cats had neurological symptoms.
‘‘So whether the mechanism [for dogs] is similar or different – whether it has anything to do with irradiation – is still not clear.’’
A leading veterinary nutritionist, Dr Nick Cave, of Massey’s Veterinary School, says he does not feed his pets any irradiated food.
Like Child, though, he says it is not clear irradiation is the cause of the dog illnesses.
Child made the connection to irradiation and the cat deaths after authorities in Australia required one particular brand of cat food to be irradiated as a biosecurity measure. Australian cats became sick and died, whereas cats elsewhere that ate the same food which hadn’t been irradiated did not suffer.
‘‘The problem seems to be that don’t read,’’ irradiation of dry cat food, regardless of brand, seems to render the food neurotoxic to some cats.’’
In New Zealand, the Ministry of Primary Industries confirmed there was nothing stopping any pet food from being irradiated, and nor were there any labelling requirements.
Neither did it know how many imported products were irradiated.
‘‘If the importer is meeting their regulatory and legal requirement to ensure products are fit for purpose, there is no need to declare whether their products have been irradiated,’’ a spokesperson says.
MPI administers an adverse event reporting programme to track any issues with pet foods.
‘‘There have been no reports received by MPI for any adverse events related to irradiated pet foods in New Zealand.’’
Friends of the Earth spokesman Bob Tait, a long-time opponent of food irradiation, says experiments on rats in Russia in the 1970s showed their kidneys were effected after long-term consumption of irradiated food. He is calling for a moratorium on the importation of irradiated pet food until the issues has been properly investigated.