By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last Friday, USDA officially released approximately 80,000 chickens from a “hold” list encompassing eight Indiana breeder farms.

On April 30, USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jointly announced these breeders, as well as 2.7 million broilers on 30 Hoosier farms, had consumed feed earlier this year containing the same melamine-tainted Chinese wheat gluten linked to nationwide pet deaths since February.

Though the chickens were originally to be destroyed to remove them from human consumption, USDA and FDA determined there should be no health risk to people eating the poultry.

The eight farmers were given the go-ahead they could either process their 80,000 breeders for meat or return them to hatching.

“Those producers can continue to use the birds in their normal lay cycle (if they wish),” said Dr. Bret Marsh, Indiana state veterinarian.
“The biggest question was if these birds could be used for human food.”

The hens have, of course, been laying eggs in the interim. Marsh said there were no restrictions placed on sale or use of their eggs or broiler chicks during that time. He explained a breeder hen may be used to produce broiler chickens for as long as 60 weeks before being processed.

Whereas thousands of cats and dogs grew ill or died from consumption of melamine- and cyanuric acid-tainted pet food, no livestock deaths were traced to it, according to USDA and FDA. (Pet food scraps are often mixed into livestock feed.)

FDA officials explained the chickens – as well as 56,000 swine also recently held on farms in seven states, including Illinois, and similarly released by USDA May 15 – did not get sick because pet food was only one ingredient of their feed.

In a statement, USDA/FDA officials said testing determined the danger of melamine to human health was even less likely because it does not accumulate in a chicken’s body, and swine eliminate the compound through their kidneys.

Also, meat makes up a limited portion of a person’s diet.
The example USDA provided was that a 132-pound person would be in danger only if they were to eat 800 pounds of melamine-tainted food daily.