October 7th, 2010 
admin There is a very high quality pet food called Orijen made in Canada. It is fine everywhere in the world and made of great ingredients but in Australia, they require imported kibble like Orijen to be irradiated. Somehow, when Orijen for cats was irradiated it caused illness and even death in them. Why did this happen? To make it clear, there was nothing wrong or toxic in the Orijen but after it was irradiated for Australia to comply with their requirements, it became something toxic.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25024820-421,00.html
From the news story:
“Today, the cats’ owners are going public to warn others about the dangers of irradiation, which is a quarantine process all imported pet food must undergo before it is able to be sold in Australia.”
P.S. They irradiated other kibbles from other manufacturers and the same thing did not happen, so wondering what could have made the problem with Orijen?
Coly, or anyone else, so did the cats get Leukoencephalomyelopathy because of the chemicals that were reproduced from the radiation? Or because the B-Vitamins were destroyed and so the cats weren’t getting the vitamins they needed?
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I believe it’s pretty self-explanatory. Irradiation is when an item is exposed to radiation, which kills microorganisms, bugs, bacteria, viruses, etc, etc.
Irradiation produces chemicals (unique radiolytic products to be exact) on the food… it also destroys B vitamins in meat.
Orijen is an excellent food.. chocked full of meat. Meat responds differently to irradiation than other foods like grains or vegetables. I’m assuming that the other foods that were irradiated were not as meaty as Orijen weren’t effected because of this.
As for the Leukoencephalomyelopathy, I’d blame it on the chemicals. I’ve never seen a study where Leukoencephalomyelopathy was linked to a vitamin B deficiency.
Leukoencephalomyelopathy is very rare and mainly seen in Rottweilers and Leonbergers. Unfortunately, since it is so rare, not many studies are conducted.
Leukoencephalomyelopathy is a disease of white matter of the brain and spinal cord.
But then again, Vitamin B is needed to support a healthy nervous system, so maybe it’s a combination of both.
Whatever the reason, it’s very sad.
Irradiating the food can cause chemicals to form on the food called “Oxidative by-products”. It also causes severe destruction of Vitamin A in the food. Because Orijen was irradiated when it entered Australia, as required by that government for imported kibble, the Vitamin A was destroyed in the food so cats were eating food with a lack of Vitamin A.
Vitamin A deficiencies cause nervous system problems and this is how the cats were affected.
Orijen is really great food but because of the gamma radiation applied to it, this caused chemicals to form and depleted the Vitamin A in the food. Irradiating any kibble can cause problems but for some reason it was only Orijen cat food that was affected so severely. The Australian government needs to rethink their irradiation of imported pet food or pet food should not be imported there. Orijen has decided not to sell their food in Australia anymore because of this.
Very sad.