and cyanuric acid in feed
In China melamine was also added intentionally to
vegetable protein concentrates to increase the content of
nitrogen compounds (crude protein) in these products. The
first problems appeared in 2007 in the USA in the form of
the mass death of cats and dogs caused by renal failure. The
cause was contaminated gluten added as protein concentrate
to feed (Dobson, 2008). The diagnosis was melamine.
Melamine contamination of feed caused the death of four
thousand dogs and cats. In total, there were 1 950 cases of
cats and about 2 200 cases of dogs reported dead. Deaths of
dogs were also reported from the Republic of South Africa.
The cause was gluten (contaminated with melamine) used
for feed production. It was the mass death of cats and dogs
after feed intake where high concentrations of melamine
were found that drew attention to the toxic effects of
melamine. The cause was acute renal failure (Brown et al.,
2007). Histopathologiocal, toxicological and clinical-pathological
changes like uremia, anorexia, vomiting, lethargy,
polyuria, azotemia and hypophosphatemia were described
in these dogs and cats.