March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Menu Foods Ltd., which recalled 60 million cans of wet pet food in the U.S. last week, asked for all brands involved to be removed, regardless of the date of manufacture, amid concern tainted products are still being sold.

Menu Foods, based in the Toronto suburb of Streetsville, withdrew all varieties of the affected brands even though there isn't a known risk for those foods, the company said in a statement. The original recall, announced March 16, applied to wet food made at its Emporia, Kansas, and Pennsauken, New Jersey, plants between Dec. 3 and March 6.

The recall doesn't include any dry pet food or pet food sold in Canada.

At least 16 cats and dogs have died from eating the contaminated food, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said. Marty Becker, a resident veterinarian on ABC-TV's ``Good Morning America'' and a contributor to PetConnection.com, a syndicated pet column Web site, said thousands of pets may have been sickened or killed. The site has received 1,459 reports of pets dying of food-related kidney failure as of today.

``The chorus just grew louder and louder,'' said Becker, a veterinarian in Sandpoint, Idaho, in a phone interview. ``We could see two, three, even four zeros behind the official deaths once this is done.''

Rat Poison

New York state officials said yesterday the wet food made by Menu Foods contained a rat poison called aminopterin, and the FDA got as many as 4,400 calls about sick pets. The recall involves brands including Procter & Gamble Co.'s Iams, Nestle SA's Mighty Dog and retailers' own private labels.

Menu Foods hasn't gotten reports of additional pet deaths beyond the FDA count of 16, said Sam Bornstein, a spokesman for the company. They are working with veterinarians and the FDA to collect the information, he said.

The FDA is focusing on finding the source of the contamination and getting information to consumers, rather than tracking the cases of sick pets, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said in an e-mailed statement today.

``We do not have enough information on the number of sick or dead pets to provide a number,'' he said.

PetConnection.com, the Web site, received its reports from owners who filled out an Internet form asking about each pet's food, medical history and veterinary diagnosis, Becker said. The site created the form as a place to collect the raw data, he said.

``No one knew where to report,'' he said. ``It was just yesterday that everyone agreed that the owners should tell their vets to report it to the state veterinary agencies, who would report to the FDA.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Courtney Dentch in New York at cdentch1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 24, 2007 18:24 EDT