STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Aflatoxin contamination has been the cause of many major disease outbreaks and pet food recalls over the last 20+ years; aflatoxins are known to cause acute toxic illness and cancer in both animals and humans
- Midwestern Pet Food, producer of Sportmix brand dog and cat foods has recalled over 1,000 lot codes of product for levels of aflatoxin contamination that are implicated in over 100 pet deaths and over 200 pet illnesses in the U.S. alone
- At least two class action lawsuits have been filed against Midwestern by pet owners whose animal companions fell ill, and in some cases died or were euthanized after eating a Sportmix or affiliated product
- In less than six months, 60 million pounds of aflatoxin contaminated pet food have been recalled, leading to the reasonable conclusion that some ultraprocessed pet food manufacturers are not following the laws as laid out in the FDA’s 2016 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
- It’s worth noting that since implementation of the FSMA five years ago, the FDA has been primarily focused on raw pet food producers, which are not and have never been the subject of large-scale product recalls
Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published February 21, 2021.
As of January 27, 2021, 110 pets in the U.S. had died and another 210 were sickened from apparently lethal levels of aflatoxins in Sportmix brand dog or cat food produced by Midwestern Pet Foods based in Evansville, IN. The aflatoxin contamination is presumably confined to corn products in Midwestern's Oklahoma plant.1
The contaminated foods may also have been shipped to 35 other nations around the globe, including Bahrain, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Polynesia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Singapore, Taiwan, Trinidad, Ukraine, UAE, Uruguay, and Vietnam.2
Over 1,000 lot codes are involved in the recall and can be identified as including an expiration date before "07/09/2022" and an "05," designating it as coming from the Oklahoma plant. Midwestern has pulled all the foods in its Oklahoma plant that contain corn and have an expiration date on or before July 9, 2022.
You can find the latest FDA alert (dated January 26, 2021), which includes the most recent list of recalled products, here.
Aflatoxins Cause Acute Toxic Illness and Cancer
Aflatoxin contamination has been the reason behind a number of regional pet food recalls and several major disease outbreaks over the past 20+ years. Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins produced by the Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticusfungi and are the most extensively researched mycotoxins in the world.
Aflatoxins are known to cause acute toxic illness and cancer in animals and humans and are considered among the most carcinogenic substances on the planet. Cats and dogs are more sensitive to aflatoxins than many other animals.
Aflatoxins frequently contaminate agricultural crops before they are harvested. Conditions that promote pre-harvest contamination include high temperatures, prolonged periods of drought, and insect activity. Aflatoxins can also be a problem after harvesting if the crop stays wet for too long. And they can grow on stored crops if the moisture level is too high and mold develops.
The three plants with the highest rate of aflatoxin contamination are corn, peanuts and cottonseed. Aflatoxicosis is more common in dogs than cats because commercial dog food formulas more often contain corn products.
Symptoms to Watch for and Pet Food Ingredients to Avoid
Aflatoxicosis is chiefly a disease of the liver, causing gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, reproductive issues, anemia and jaundice. Certain types of aflatoxins are linked to cancer in animals.
If your dog or cat ingests food contaminated with aflatoxins, you can anticipate one or more of the following symptoms:
- Severe, persistent vomiting
- Sluggishness
- Bloody diarrhea
- Discolored urine
- Lack of appetite
- Jaundice, especially around the whites of the eyes, gum, and belly
- Fever
If you think your pet has eaten contaminated food, even if he's showing no symptoms of illness, get him to your veterinarian or an emergency vet clinic as soon as possible. And bring the food with you.
Pets exposed to aflatoxins should receive ozone therapy, hyperbaric oxygen treatments, intravenous (IV) vitamin C and oral glutathione, chlorella and charcoal, all of which help to naturally detoxify the body and assist in cellular repair.
If you feed kibble to your pet (which is only recommended if you cannot afford to feed better quality food), be sure to study the ingredient list carefully and avoid brands containing grains or corn in any form, including corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, corn flour, etc.
Along with the increased risk of aflatoxin contamination, corn is a notoriously allergenic food that is difficult for many animals to digest. Also avoid formulas containing cereal grains like maize, sorghum, pearl millet, rice and wheat. Rice can also contain toxic levels of arsenic.
Many inexpensive, low quality pet foods rely heavily on all these ingredients. Many treats also contain these ingredients, including organic "cookies" (made from organic whole wheat or rice), which are an under-represented potential source of toxicosis, in my opinion.
Class Action Lawsuits Have Been Filed Against Midwestern
As of this writing, two class action lawsuits on behalf of grieving pet parents have been filed against Midwestern Pet Food in the U.S. District Court of Indiana.
In a January 15, 2021 filing, the plaintiff, Tammy Johnson alleges that Midwestern should have been aware of dangerous aflatoxin levels in Sportsmix dog food that Johnson fed her seven dogs — six adults and one puppy. Thankfully, the six adult dogs recovered after several days of illness, but sadly, the puppy developed colitis as a result of the poisoning and will need future screening for liver damage.3
According to another filing on January 19th, plaintiffs Stephanie Romero, David Starnes and Ashley Lill weren't as fortunate as Johnson. From Susan Thixton of TruthAboutPetFood.com:4
"On December 25, 2020, Christmas day, after Ms. Romero had been feeding her two dogs SPORTMiX pet food, the two dogs became seriously ill consistent with symptoms of aflatoxin poisoning, and Ms. Romero was forced to make the decision to euthanize them.
After feeding three of his dogs SPORTMiX, Mr. Starnes's three dogs died on December 4, December 6 and December 10, 2020, after becoming suddenly ill and appearing jaundiced. His dog that did not eat as much SPORTMiX is the only survivor.
After feeding her two dogs SPORTMiX from a bag purchased in October 2020, one of Ms. Lill's dogs began vomiting and when she switched her pet food, the dog recovered. Her other dog continued to eat SPORTMiX, became jaundiced, had diarrhea, and died on December 20, 2020, on the way to the veterinarian's office."
The level of aflatoxin contamination in tested pet food samples is jaw-dropping. From the lawsuit:
"A veterinarian, who published laboratory test results for some samples of the Recalled Pet Foods found that they measured 525 parts per billion (ppb) in one pet food sample and 380 (ppb) in the other — far surpassing the FDA's legal limit of 20 ppb by 19 and 26 times according to the Canine Review."
Where Is the FDA's Focus When It Comes to Pet Food?
As Thixton points out in her article 60 Million Pounds of Aflatoxin Contaminated Pet Food Were Recalled in Just 4 Months, it's clear that Midwestern Pet Food as well as other pet food producers are not following the Hazard Analysis and Preventive Control laws as defined in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
The FDA touts the FSMA as "the most sweeping reform of our food safety laws in more than 70 years," that "aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination of the food supply to preventing it."
Perhaps if the FDA hadn't been singularly focused, since implementation of the FSMA five years ago, on targeting raw pet food producers, the agency might have helped prevent at least some of those 60 million pounds of toxic ultraprocessed pet food from getting onto store shelves and into the bodies of hundreds of family pets.
