The FDA has published a summary of the issues relating to last month's recall of dozens of brands of pet food.

According to the summary, there have been more than 12,000 reports of affected pets since the recall was announced in mid-March.

The issues were traced back to contaminated wheat gluten from China, distributed in the U.S. by ChemNutra of Las Vegas, NV.

According to the FDA, several major pet food manufacturers have been impacted by this contaminted gluten:

To date, voluntary recalls of pet food products have been conducted by Del Monte Pet Products, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Menu Foods, Nestle Purina PetCare Company, P&G Pet Care, and Sunshine Mills. On April 5, Sunshine Mills, Inc., of Red Bay, Alabama, voluntarily recalled a portion of its branded dog biscuits made at its Red Bay, Alabama biscuit plant during part of March 2007. In addition, Menu Foods, Inc., voluntarily expanded its pet food recall for selected “cuts and gravy” pet food products, manufactured back to November 8, 2006. Both firms issued press releases which are accessible on the FDA website.

UPDATE: The FDA has produced another progress report on their activities relating this this recall as of April 23. Looks like melamine (used to make kitchen utensils and to coat some types of building supplies) was the contaminant to blame for this outbreak.