What was recalled
This page synthesizes the antibiotic-residue contamination pattern in U.S. pet treats from 2013 through the 2024 follow-on enforcement period. The January 2013 wave began with New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets retail sampling detecting unapproved antibiotic residues in chicken jerky pet treats: sulfaclozine, tilmicosin, trimethoprim, enrofloxacin, and sulfaquinoxaline. On January 9, 2013, Nestlé Purina voluntarily withdrew Waggin’ Train and Canyon Creek Ranch chicken jerky treats; Del Monte (later Big Heart Pet Brands) withdrew Milo’s Kitchen Chicken Jerky and Chicken Grillers; IMS Trading Corp withdrew Cadet Brand Chicken Jerky Treats. Hartz Mountain followed shortly after with its own chicken jerky withdrawal.
The 2013 wave was a narrow surface event within a much broader 8-year FDA investigation covering all Chinese-made chicken, duck, and sweet-potato jerky pet treats from August 2007 through December 31, 2015. The FDA cumulative tally documented 6,200+ dog illnesses, 26 cat illnesses, 3 human illnesses, and 1,140+ dog deaths. The dominant clinical signature was Fanconi-like syndrome — acquired renal tubular dysfunction with glucosuria, polyuria, and weight loss. The 2013 antibiotic-residue detection was one of several positive signals in 1,200+ FDA tests over the surveillance period, but no single contaminant or pathogen was conclusively identified as the root cause of the broader illness cluster. The 2014 PetSmart + Petco retail-led withdrawal (covered separately on our PetSmart-Petco 2014 page) effectively ended the Chinese-jerky category at major U.S. retail.
Why it was recalled
The root cause is country-of-origin regulatory divergence. The antibiotics detected (sulfaclozine, tilmicosin, trimethoprim, enrofloxacin, sulfaquinoxaline) are legal in Chinese poultry production for treatment of coccidiosis, respiratory disease, and intestinal infections in commercial broiler chickens. These antibiotics are not authorized by the FDA for U.S. food-animal use; finished products containing detectable residues constitute adulteration under FDA tolerance regulations. The 2013 events surfaced through state-level (New York) retail sampling rather than FDA pre-market screening — reflecting that pet food does not face the same pre-market antibiotic-residue testing as human food meat products.
The broader 2007-2015 chicken jerky investigation never conclusively identified the cause of the Fanconi-like syndrome cluster despite 1,200+ tests on 250+ products, a joint CDC case-control study in 2014, and multi-year on-site inspections of Chinese supplier facilities. The 2013 antibiotic detections were one of several positive signals; the dominant root-cause hypothesis remains unconfirmed. The operational legacy is significant: FDA Import Alert 72-07 authorizes detention without physical examination of China-origin chicken jerky pet treats; FDA Vet-LIRN was operationally validated by the multi-year effort; and the major U.S. pet retail channels (PetSmart, Petco) effectively exited the Chinese-jerky category. The Food Safety News retrospective at its 2018 retrospective documents the investigation’s methodology.
Health risks for your pet
The clinical pattern in dogs affected by the broader 2007-2015 chicken jerky cluster was Fanconi-like syndrome: acquired renal tubular dysfunction with glucosuria (sugar in urine with normal blood glucose — the diagnostic hallmark), polyuria/polydipsia, decreased appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, and weight loss. The 1,140+ canine deaths in the FDA tally were predominantly attributed to acute or progressive renal failure; some cases included disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The 2013 antibiotic-residue detection was not directly causally linked to Fanconi syndrome; the clinical signature suggested a specific nephrotoxic mechanism that the antibiotics detected do not produce. The unresolved nature of the cluster’s root cause is one of the most significant unresolved questions in U.S. pet food adverse-event history.
What to do if you bought affected product
The 2013 antibiotic-residue events are closed and affected product is no longer in distribution. The 2014-2015 PetSmart + Petco retail-led withdrawals removed all Chinese-origin chicken jerky from their combined 2,600+ U.S. stores; replacement sourcing shifted to the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand. If you currently feed chicken jerky pet treats, check the country-of-origin label — "Distributed by" addresses do not indicate where the treats were made. Import Alert 72-07 remains active, so any China-origin chicken jerky on the U.S. market is technically subject to FDA detention without physical examination, but small importers continue to bring product in. If your dog develops increased thirst and urination plus lethargy on any jerky-type treat, request urinalysis from your veterinarian; glucosuria with normal blood glucose is the diagnostic signature of Fanconi-like syndrome and warrants discontinuing the treat and supportive care.
How this affects KibbleIQ’s grade
None of the historically implicated jerky-treat brands (Waggin’ Train, Canyon Creek Ranch, Milo’s Kitchen Chicken Jerky, Cadet Brand) are in the KibbleIQ scored database — our Treats Rubric v1.0 covers 18 treat products spanning 8 function classes (single-ingredient-FD, training-treat, biscuit, dental-chew-VOHC, dental-chew, jerky, rawhide, lickable-puree) per our published methodology. The 2013-2024 antibiotic-residue pattern reinforces a broader principle for the Treats Rubric: country-of-origin and processing-method transparency belong in any treat evaluation alongside ingredient quality. Single-ingredient freeze-dried (FD) treats made in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, or Australia have substantially lower regulatory-divergence exposure surface than imported low-moisture jerky from production environments with less regulatory oversight. Recall-history scoring under our planned methodology v2 will weight the cumulative 8-year FDA signal heavily against any brand whose historical jerky line tied to this event.