Eeyores news and view

Tests reveal some pet supplements skimp on meds
July 9, 2009 - 2:21pm
In this June 25, 2009 photo, Nicole Albino poses for a photograph with her pug Chakka at her home in New York. Albino said Chakka was constantly chewing and licking his knees until her veterinarian recommended glucosamine and chondroitin. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg) By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Medical Writer
(AP) - Arthritis supplements bought by millions of pet owners for their dogs, cats and horses sometimes skimp on the ingredients the makers claim can help aching paws and aging joints, and some contain high amounts of lead, an independent laboratory found.
Four of the six joint supplements for animals tested by ConsumerLab.com lacked the amounts of glucosamine or chondroitin promised on their labels or had other flaws, such as lead. Wider testing by a trade group of 87 brands found that one-quarter fell short.
Over-the-counter dietary supplements for humans do not have to be proven safe or effective before they are sold, and pills for pets get even less scrutiny.
"There is and there always has been" a quality problem, although many companies do a good job, said Mark Blumenthal of the American Botanical Council, which tracks research on herbal products.
Even when these supplements contain what they claim, there is little evidence that they work, veterinary experts say. A large government study of people with arthritis found that glucosamine and chondroitin did no better than dummy pills in easing mild pain. Testing these supplements on pets is more difficult.
"You can't ask a dog or a cat to give you a subjective impression of how they're feeling after taking the product for several days. They can't say, 'On a scale of 1 to 5, I feel better or worse,'" Blumenthal said.
Giving supplements to an ailing pet can make its owner feel better, though. "The owner shelled out money for the pills and wants to believe they are helping," Blumenthal said.
Up to one-third of dogs and cats in the U.S. are given supplements, a government report estimates. Sales of pet supplements have roughly doubled since 2003, to nearly $1 billion a year in the United States, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. These supplements are sold over the Internet and at pet supply stores and some groceries.
Many pet owners believe they make a difference.
Nicole Albino, who lives in New York City, said her dog Chakka was constantly chewing and licking his knees until her veterinarian recommended glucosamine and chondroitin.
After taking the pills for a year, "he's definitely been licking his knees a lot less," she said. The dog resumed when she ran out of the stuff for a few weeks. "It just seems to help," Albino said.
Few high-quality studies have tested the effectiveness of animal supplements. The Food and Drug Administration says these products are not bound by quality rules for human ones.
In 2007, the FDA asked an expert panel to look into three popular pet supplements _ lutein, evening primrose oil and garlic _ but the group could not agree on a safe upper limit.
"Many people presume that supplements are safer than drugs, but the reality is that there is very limited safety data on dietary supplements for horses, dogs, and cats," the panel concluded.
That same year, 2007, pet food tainted with melamine sickened and killed thousands of cats and dogs. Melamine can mimic protein in some lab tests, and protein costs much more than melamine.
Similarly, certain substances can fool tests for chondroitin, an expensive joint-supplement ingredient, said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com. The company tests supplements for manufacturers that want its seal of approval, and publishes ratings for subscribers.
Chondroitin usually comes from pig and cow cartilage, though shark and chicken cartilage also can be used, as well as algae. Glucosamine usually comes from the shells of crabs. It is also sold in chemical forms _ something that might surprise people who think of these as "natural" products.
ConsumerLab.com's most recent tests of human joint supplements, released this week along with the pet pill results, found that five out of 21 brands failed to meet quality standards, usually because of too little chondroitin. Four of the six pet supplements tested also failed. One contained only 17 percent of the promised chondroitin.
The National Animal Supplement Council, a trade group in suburban San Diego, found that 28 percent of the 87 brands it tested in April did not contain what was claimed, said council president, William Bookout. The group doesn't name names, but uses the results to help members improve quality control.
"Sometimes a company doesn't even realize they have a problem, or a company can make an honest mistake," Bookout said.
He warns consumers not to expect too much from a pill: "There isn't any magic bullet out there. It is not hip replacement in a bottle."
Dr. Babette Gladstein, a vet who makes house calls for dogs and cats in New York City, said she uses alternative methods but not supplements, because there is not enough proof they work. For overweight pets with bad knees, she advises healthy diets and weight loss.
"I teach the clients how to massage their animal, how to stretch their animal, how to get better range of motion" Gladstein said.
For people who do give pets joint supplements, experts suggest:
_Check with a vet beforehand to see if it is safe.
_Look for a seal of approval by an independent lab or organization.
_Keep a log of your pet's behavior, such as its ability to go up and down stairs, before and after supplement use so you can tell if it helps.
_Don't exceed recommended doses. Too much can cause loose stools and gas pains.
_Watch for shellfish allergies if using glucosamine derived from seafood.
_Avoid versions in salt form (NaCl, or sodium chloride on the label) if the animal has high blood pressure.
_Do not use glucosamine or chondroitin with blood thinners, such as heparin or aspirin, unless a vet advises it. Some breeds, such as Doberman pinschers, are predisposed to bleeding problems.
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On the Net:
National Academy of Sciences report on supplements for animals: http://tinyurl.com/clmfff
American Botanical Council: http://tinyurl.com/lddnqq
National Animal Supplement Council: http://www.nasc.cc

Here is a combo of three articles that was on Survival Blog yesterday. Tamiflu does not appear to be the panacea that it was first reported to be. Back on July 4th i blogged about a case in Hong Kong being resistant to Tamiflu.
Canada: Tamiflu Resistance In Saskatchewan
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/07080902/H274Y_SK.html
Tamiflu Resistance in San Francisco
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/08/MNG318KL8K.DTL
Tamiflu Resistance in Hong Kong, Japan, and Denmark http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/newsbriefs/h1n1_antiviral_resistance_20090708/en/index.html
US State Department under cyberattack for fourth day
The US State Department said Thursday its website came under cyberattack for a fourth day running as it tried to prevent further attacks.
"I'm just going to speak about our website, the state.gov website. There's not a high volume of attacks. But we're still concerned about it. They are continuing," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
"We are taking measures to deal with this and any potential new attacks," Kelly added.
According to computer security experts, a dozen US government websites, including those of the White House, Pentagon and State Department, were targeted in a coordinated cyberattack which also struck sites in South Korea.
South Korean lawmakers were quoted as saying Wednesday that South Korea's intelligence service believes North Korea or its sympathizers may have staged the attack.
But Kelly added: "I have no information... of North Korean involvement. I have... nothing that I can confirm."
He said that the site based at the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea was not shut down and was not materially affected by any of these attacks.
Kelly has said the US computer emergency readiness team is working with State Department experts, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other government agencies to try to resolve the problem.
DHS is leading the probe, Kelly said.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed earlier that US government and private sector websites had come under so-called "distributed denial of service" attack but declined to identify any of the targeted sites.
A denial of service attack attempts to paralyze a website by flooding it with traffic from an army of malware-infected computers known as a "botnet."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.a6c27e3843e8f645f9e395649a3a85e5.c51&show_article=1

UFO Club allows sighters to share without scorn
July 10, 2009 - 9:45am By RICARDO LOPEZ The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Mae Burdette knows that when she mentions UFOs and extraterrestrials, her statements often fall on skeptical or even deaf ears.
But at the second meeting of a newly formed UFO Club, Burdette found an audience willing to listen with an open mind.
She told a group of 20 people Wednesday night at the Princess Anne Area Library about her experiences with alien abductions, mysterious men in dark suits and her ability to foresee events, such as a neighbor's house fire.
"The club is about bringing people together and putting their experiences into perspective," said Burdette, 64, who lives in Chesapeake.
Cameron Pack, 25, created the UFO Club so people like Burdette can share their experiences and connect with others who have felt marginalized after speaking about peculiar events.
He began to advertise the club through fliers distributed at local holistic healing stores and in a classified ad. About a dozen people attended that first meeting.
"People have been wanting to have this for a long time," said Pack, a Virginia Beach resident.
Pack, who works part time in retail, is a local field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network. He became interested in UFOs after seeing a triangular object in the sky with many bright lights in 2003.
Pack is passionate about his investigative work. He receives assignments to look into UFOs from his director. He interviews witnesses, collects any evidence and updates the network's nationwide database with a completed report.
Pack carries a briefcase packed with reports, a camera and a field manual on how to conduct inquiries. He is not paid for his work, even though it takes up a lot of his time.
In a little more than a month on the job, he's worked on about 25 cases.
"Cameron is new, but he's very good," said, Susan Swiatek, the network's state director. "We're glad to have him aboard. He writes well, and he writes copious quantities in his reports."
Most of the sightings are reported directly to Mutual UFO Network on its Web site, but some are forwarded by Virginia Beach police dispatch, a practice that began in the 1970s.
A 1976 letter from the Advance Research of UFO Organization to then-Chief of Police William Davis requested that the Police Department forward UFO sighting reports to the organization. Shortly after, an internal memo sent to dispatchers instructed them to take reports and then call UFO Central to relay the information.
An officer is rarely sent out to investigate, said Sue Frazier, a dispatch supervisor.
Several dozen reports have come in to dispatch since then, and most people never figure out an object and keep silent, Swiatek said.
"When you experience something like that, what you believe to be alien spacecraft, you really start to question yourself," said Terrell Copeland, a Marine veteran who reported seeing a huge triangle-shape craft floating over a Suffolk shopping center in 2005. "You're just lost."
Copeland said people aren't open to talking about their experiences because they don't want to strain their relationships with coworkers, family or friends.
"This club was necessary because there's nothing like it in the area," Copeland said.
Wednesday's meeting included a diverse group _ 20-somethings, senior citizens, a married couple _ and all showed genuine interest in hearing Burdette's experiences.
When a pair of men in dark suits approached her at work in 1973 in downtown Norfolk, Burdette said, they knew her husband, where he worked, how many children she had and other personal information. They questioned her, but she became spooked and asked them to leave. They returned a few days later, she said, and requested that she not tell anyone about them.
"Then I saw the movie 'Men in Black,' and I made the connection," she told the group. "I still don't know who they were to this day, but I knew something was suspicious."
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Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://www.pilotonline.com