Blessings to Don Earl for all his hard work and all his help.

Here's what we have so far:

As you can see, the lab found "rare large gram positive rods" in 5 out of the six samples, yet they were unable to culture anything.  They then went on to test for clostridium perfringens which is what I would have requested based on some research I did.

I am seriously contemplating having them test for bacillus anthracis and bacillus cereus.
B. anthracis also known as anthrax can be in animals and it usually comes from the spores in the soil.  I remember a man who brought some sort of hide back from Africa and he wound up with anthrax as a result of contact with the hide.  Perhaps, because this beef comes from Uruguay it is similar??

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/anthrax/news/feb2806anthrax.html

My research for large gram positive rods led me here:

http://www.buddycom.com/bacteria/gpr.html

Any thoughts or input will be most appreciated.

I intend to notify the Corporate DVM from Newmans.  I didn't go the "organoleptic" test route, nor did I repeatedly feed it to unsuspecting kitties.

I wll also notify the FDA and the USDA and quite possibly the NYS Dept. of Ag

Does the lab know if the gram positive rods are spore forming or not? That might help narrow down identification.


http://microbiowiki.wetpaint.com/page/Gruesome+Gram-positive+Bacilli

Wait, duh me, if they couldn't culture them - does that mean they were not spore producing?

Peg-thank you for sticking with this & Don too. Its so frustrating to get ambiguous results & not be able to narrow them down. We need to hit the lottery so we can afford all the necessary testing to find these problems.

Don has posted a report

http://www.pfpsa.org/news.html

BP, do you think UCD any more capable identifying bacteria than WADDL?

I just thought that UCD does a considerable amount of research in addition to their testing programs  &  that they might be worth asking about it or letting them see the test results . Maybe they could offer more suggestions as possible ways to determine what those rare large gram positive rods were or what other options might exist for DNA sequencing....

JustMe, these were 3 oz cans that were tested and only of the Beef varieties from Uruguay.
Cat food only.



BP as you indicated, there is definitely a USDA Organic stamp on the can label.

I certainly think it will be worth sending USDA the reports that have come back.  I still have some cans that I can send to them should they decide to test this food.  BP, please hang on to yours for now.

I also need to again express my eternal gratitude to Don Earl and the pfpsa.org. for all his hard work.
It is an absolute pleasure to work with Don. 

And again a special thank you to Meowli for her assistance in this food testing project.