From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2008-02-15 17:40:19 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Dr Murray's reply Melamine actions
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Re: Cyanuric Acid and Melamine
See:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL656
with the link to
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_503671.html
from April 2007 and a few segments in case it doesn't open for you:
> Researchers also have identified three other contaminants in the
> urine and kidneys of animals sickened or killed after eating the
> recalled foods, including cyanuric acid, a chemical commonly used in
> pool chlorination, three researchers told the Pittsburgh Tribune-
> Review. Cyanuric acid is what most likely sickened pets, one
> researcher said.
> Researchers in at least three labs found cyanuric acid, amilorine
> and amiloride -- all by-products of melamine -- in the crystals of
> animals' urine, tissues and kidneys, according to Dr. Brent Hoff, a
> veterinarian and clinical toxicologist and pathologist, at the
> University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada; Richard Goldstein,
> associate professor of medicine at Cornell University's College of
> Veterinary Medicine and a kidney specialist, and Dr. Thomas
> Mullaney, acting director of Michigan State University's Center for
> Population and Animal Health.
> All three are by-products of melamine, which researchers said they
> believe were formed as the animals metabolized the melamine.
But then in a later article there may have been questions as to just
how much these 4 chemicals were derived from each other in the body.
What I have not seen -- since the 4 are related and can be easily
switched back and forth to each other -- is if the manufacturing plant
which was making the melamine in the first place to artificially make
foods look like they had more protein might have done a bad job of
manufacturing and produced all 4 related compounds instead.
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL919
with link to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/06/AR2007050601034.html
including the following segments from the May 2007 2 page article in
case it doesn't open for you
> Also found in the gluten in smaller concentrations was cyanuric
> acid. The man-made chemical is used to stabilize chlorine in outdoor
> swimming pools, especially in regions such as the American Southwest
> where the sun's rays are quick to dissipate that disinfectant. Two
> other compounds, ammeline and ammelide, were present in even smaller
> amounts.
>
> The four compounds have similar chemical structures. One can easily
> be made into another with the right chemical reaction. All contain
> relatively large amounts of the element nitrogen. Of the 15 atoms in
> a molecule of melamine, six are nitrogen. It also has three atoms of
> carbon and six of hydrogen. Ammeline has five nitrogen atoms,
> ammelide has four, and cyanuric acid has three.
>
...
> Last month, however, toxicologists at the University of Guelph in
> Ontario detected another compound in the stones from cats suffering
> kidney failure -- cyanuric acid. Initially, the ratio was thought to
> be about two parts melamine to one part cyanuric acid. More recent
> and more precise measurements suggest an even split.
>
> Ten days ago, Guelph scientists Brent Hoff and Grant Maxie combined
> melamine and cyanuric acid in a sample of cat urine. They produced
> crystals that, when examined for their chemical and physical
> properties, were virtually identical to the stones taken from the
> ill or dead cats.
>
...
> So how might a plastic and a pool chemical (and their cousins,
> ammeline and ammelide) have gotten into pet food?
>
...
>
> But one theory is that they were leftovers from a chemical company's
> production of something else. In an act of fraud that substituted
> cheap scrap for more expensive protein, someone put the compounds
> into the wheat gluten, thinking they would never be discovered and
> never cause a problem.
>
By now there are probably updates on the web, but those above are
easily found using the FHL archives, so let's see some of what turned
up later. The December Abstract seems to answer the question.
From PubMed:
BEGIN QUOTED ABSTRACTS
Food Addit Contam. 2007 Dec;24(12):1319-25.
High-performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous
detection of the adulteration of cereal flours with melamine and
related triazine by-products ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid.
Ehling S, Tefera S, Ho IP.
Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association (formerly the National
Food Processors Association), Washington, DC 20005, USA.
Melamine has been used for the adulteration of cereal flours in order
to increase their apparent protein content. Crude melamine may contain
several by-products, i.e. ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid. The
simultaneous analysis of all four chemicals is difficult because of
the formation of an insoluble salt between melamine and cyanuric acid.
A simple and convenient high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
method for the detection of the adulteration of cereal flours with all
four chemicals is proposed herein. The precipitate formation between
melamine and cyanuric acid was prevented by using alkaline conditions
(pH 11-12) for both standards preparation and sample extraction. The
method uses matrix-matching, which involves the construction of a
calibration curve on a blank (negative control) matrix, which is then
used for the quantitation of melamine and by-products in adulterated
(positive) samples. Matrix-matching compensates for analyte losses
during sample preparation, and for matrix effects. The method was
successfully applied to wheat, corn, and rice flours, and is expected
to be applicable (with some modifications) to soy flour as well. The
method allows for the detection of melamine, ammeline, and ammelide at
approximately 5 microg g(-1), and cyanuric acid at approximately 90
microg g(-1) in wheat flour.
PMID: 18027188 [PubMed - in process]
> J Vet Diagn Invest. 2007 Nov;19(6):616-24.
> Assessment of melamine and cyanuric acid toxicity in cats.
>
> Puschner B, Poppenga RH, Lowenstine LJ, Filigenzi MS,Pesavento PA.
> California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System,
> Toxicology Laboratory, University of California, West Health Science
> Drive, Davis, CA, USA.
>
> The major pet food recall associated with acute renal failure in
> dogs and cats focused initially on melamine as the suspect toxicant.
> In the course of the investigation, cyanuric acid was identified in
> addition to melamine in the offending food. The purpose of this
> study was to characterize the toxicity potential of melamine,
> cyanuric acid, and a combination of melamine and cyanuric acid in
> cats. In this pilot study, melamine was added to the diet of 2 cats
> at 0.5% and 1%, respectively. Cyanuric acid was added to the diet of
> 1 cat at increasing doses of 0.2%, 0.5%, and 1% over the course of
> 10 days. Melamine and cyanuric acid were administered together at
> 0%, 0.2%, 0.5%, and 1% to 1 cat per dose group. No effect on renal
> function was observed in cats fed with melamine or cyanuric acid
> alone. Cats dosed with a combination were euthanized at 48 hours
> after dosing because of acute renal failure. Urine and touch
> impressions of kidneys from all cats dosed with the combination
> revealed the presence of fan-shaped, birefringent crystals.
> Histopathologic findings were limited to the kidneys and included
> crystals primarily within tubules of the distal nephron, severe
> renal interstitial edema, and hemorrhage at the corticomedullary
> junction. The kidneys contained estimated melamine concentrations of
> 496 to 734 mg/kg wet weight and estimated cyanuric acid
> concentrations of 487 to 690 mg/kg wet weight. The results
> demonstrate that the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid is
> responsible for acute renal failure in cats.
> PMID: 17998549 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
>
> J Vet Diagn Invest. 2007 Sep;19(5):525-31.
> Outbreaks of renal failure associated with melamine and cyanuric
> acid in dogs and cats in 2004 and 2007.
>
> Brown CA, Jeong KS, Poppenga RH, Puschner B, Miller DM, Ellis AE,
> Kang KI, Sum S, Cistola AM, Brown SA.
> Athens Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, College of Veterinary
> Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
>
> Sixteen animals affected in 2 outbreaks of pet food-associated renal
> failure (2 dogs in 2004; 10 cats and 4 dogs in 2007) were evaluated
> for histopathologic, toxicologic, and clinicopathologic changes. All
> 16 animals had clinical and laboratory evidence of uremia, including
> anorexia, vomiting, lethargy, polyuria, azotemia, and
> hyperphosphatemia. Where measured, serum hepatic enzyme
> concentrations were normal in animals from both outbreaks. All
> animals died or were euthanized because of severe uremia. Distal
> tubular lesions were present in all 16 animals, and unique
> polarizable crystals with striations were present in distal tubules
> or collecting ducts in all animals. The proximal tubules were
> largely unaffected. Crystals and histologic appearance were
> identical in both outbreaks. A chronic pattern of histologic change,
> characterized by interstitial fibrosis and inflammation, was
> observed in some affected animals. Melamine and cyanuric acid were
> present in renal tissue from both outbreaks. These results indicate
> that the pet food-associated renal failure outbreaks in 2004 and
> 2007 share identical clinical, histologic, and toxicologic findings,
> providing compelling evidence that they share the same causation.
> PMID: 17823396 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
>
END QUOTED ABSTRACTS
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
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http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
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