Pet food crisis in Australia deepens

Horsemeat from the Northern Territory is being investigated as the cause of the deaths of 21 dogs in Victoria. The scandal now involves up to 30 retailers in Melbourne, as recently reported on ABC News.
According to the report, Victoria state regulators, who were first alerted a month ago to a spate of dog deaths linked to pet food in eastern Victoria, said horsemeat had emerged as the focus of the investigation. They also said the manufacturer Maffra District Knackery, which has been under investigation since early July, was the source of indospicine, which caused the recent spike in liver disease and deaths in dogs in Victoria.
Victoria's Department of Agriculture issued a state-wide warning on 16 July against fresh and frozen raw meat from Gippsland sold between 31 May and 3 July. On 21 July, authorities identified indospicine as the toxin that killed the dogs. It comes from a tropical and subtropical native plant of the genus Indigofera, which is found mainly in northern Australia. Maffra District Knackery announced that it had processed horses from the Northern Territory. A company spokeswoman said that the toxin was never tested for, as it was unknown to them.