Shanghaiist: Use of melamine rampant in the Chinese feed industry

taihanasie

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:57:21 +0700

I heard that fish farmers in China are not about to stop adding antibiotics to their farms anytime soon due to the pollution of the rivers and estuaries. Supposedly, if they stopped using antibiotics, fish and shellfish would die due to infections by other things living in the water. Poor-quality water makes for poor-quality fish.

yu888

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:58:41 +0700

^ as if he makes anything else...

nanheyangrouchuan

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:34:09 +0700

eastman, what a stupid comment.

eastman

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:16:07 +0700

To solfire --"the party can send dudes into space to fuck around"? Did USA send dudes into space for fucking around? To my knowledge, the big bang did not give them enough time to bang and to turn spacecraft into an Oral Office.

Pirx

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:23:07 +0700

The two major Melamine manufacturers in China are in Shandong and in Sichuan province. Melamine used as a chemical is totally harmless, it is the surface of all kitchen and office furniture, it is the base of toddler plates, cups, cutlery. Just like sand, it should not be put in food, of course. Feed is a mix of things to keep animals healthy, especially if kept closely packed like chicken or pigs. If one is sick, all fall sick. Feed contains synthetic vitamins, amino-acids, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial as well as additives to make the meat more heavy (i.e. retain more water), make the meat look more rosy and make the egg-yolk more yellow. All this is added to the protein, soybean waste, etc. Although the use of antibiotics in feed has long been discontinued worldwide, discoveries as recent as last year in Chinese export prawns show that they are still being used. China still produces (and probably uses) one of the most notorious banned antibiotics, long banned in the EU (25 years ago) for use in feed or in veterinary products. Still there is production in China and it is actively being marketed as a feed supplement: Furzaolidone. On alibaba.com you find a dozen or so Chinese exporters selling it. This product used to be added to chicken-feed to prevent coccidiosis, to pig-feed against parasites and it was banned because the residue in the form of Nitrofurantoine in the egg-yolk and port is a known, potent carcinogene - it causes cancer. The fact that it is still being marketed as a feed additive might suggest that it is also still being used for that purpose in China. If I am not completely mistaken, the No. 1 or No. 2 cause of death in China is cancer. Using Furazolidone in feed might contribute to that. For human application GlaxoSmithKline still produce an anti-diarrhea product containing Furazolidone.

solfire

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:38:11 +0700

fake protein eh. there is a lot of fakeness going on round here these days. we need more real less fake. the party can send dudes into space to fuck around and take pictures but can't hook up safe milk for the people. what happened to 为人民服务 assholes?

dsk

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:14:52 +0700

I think more importantly what exactly is "rampant" in terms of volume in feeds? The reuters article doesn't provide any data, which is quite scary in itself.