Multiple Diamond Dog Foods Now Linked to Salmonella Outbreak in Humans

It now appears multiple Diamond Dog Food products have been linked to Salmonella infections in the human population.

In a bulletin dated May 3, 2012, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has announced the agency is collaborating with public health officials in multiple states along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate an ongoing multistate outbreak of human Salmonella Infantis infections.

According to the report…

Public health investigators used DNA “fingerprints” of Salmonella bacteria obtained through diagnostic testing with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, or PFGE, to identify cases of illness that may be part of this outbreak. They used data from PulseNet, the national subtyping network made up of state and local public health laboratories and federal food regulatory laboratories that performs molecular surveillance of foodborne infections. The outbreak strain is rare and typically 0-3 isolates are reported per month.

Multiple brands of dry pet food produced by Diamond Pet Foods at a single manufacturing facility in South Carolina have been linked to some of the human Salmonella infections. People who think they might have become ill after contact with dry pet food or with an animal that has eaten dry pet food should consult their health care providers.

So far, among the 14 individuals reported having the infection, five were hospitalized — and no deaths have been reported.

Public health investigations are ongoing to determine if other brands of dry dog food produced at the South Carolina facility are also contaminated with Salmonella – and possibly linked to human illnesses.

The Bottom Line

What’s especially troubling about this story is that the illnesses date back to October 8, 2011 – almost 7 months ago.

This fact alone makes the health complaints reported by many of our readers under some of the Diamond product reviews on this website more noteworthy.

For this reason, we’re now becoming increasingly suspicious of the actual extent of Diamond’s Salmonella contamination issue.

And so, we must recommend special caution if you’re feeding any product manufactured by Diamond at its South Carolina plant.

Unfortunately, it’s still unclear which products are produced at that location.

So, without more information from Diamond Pet Foods or the FDA, it’s impossible for anyone to reliably predict if – or when – another recall may materialize.

What to Do

I can’t stress enough how important it is to check the Diamond Pet Foods Recall website for exact products, images and production codes associated with the recall.

You can also report complaints about FDA-regulated pet foods by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.

Or go to http://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.

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