Bone Meal contaminated with Melamine recalled months ago - with no public notice

So now we find out that a quiet, unannounced recall of bone meal contaminated with melamine happened back in APRIL. Yeah, that April, the month right after March - when the recall was first announced. Wonder what they're hiding?

This from the FDA Enforcement Report in July, as far as I can tell this is the *only* place this information has been reported.

FDA Enforcement Report July 2007

RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINE - CLASS II

__________________________________
PRODUCT
Dry rendered tankage (DRT), also known as Crax, Recall # V-047-2007
CODE
23899, 23911, and 544044;
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Recalling Firm: Darling International, Inc., Irving, TX, by telephone on April 20, 2007, e-mail dated April 23, 2007, and by letter dated April 24, 2007.
Manufacturer: Darling National LLC, Wichita, KS. Firm initiated recall is complete.
REASON
Product contains melamine.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
682,600 lbs.
DISTRIBUTION
KS and NE

RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINE - CLASS III

__________________________________
PRODUCT
Dry rendered tankage (DRT), also known as Crax, Recall # V-048-2007
CODE
23897, 23953, 23973, and 23937
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Recalling Firm: Darling International, Inc., Irving, TX, by telephone on April 20, 2007, e-mail dated April 23, 2007, and by letter dated April 24, 2007.
Manufacturer: Darling National LLC, Wichita, KS. Firm initiated recall is complete.
REASON
Product contains melamine.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
682,600 lbs.
DISTRIBUTION
KS and NE

What exactly is "Dry-Rendered Tankage"?

From Wiki under Rendering

Materials that for aesthetic or sanitary reasons are not suitable for human food are the feedstocks for inedible rendering processes. Much of the inedible raw material is rendered using the "dry" method. This may be a batch or a continuous process in which the material is heated in a steam jacketed vessel to drive off the moisture and simultaneously release the fat from the fat cells. The material is first ground, then heated to release the fat and drive off the moisture, percolated to drain off the free fat, and then more fat is pressed out of the solids, which at this stage are called "cracklings" or "dry-rendered tankage". The cracklings are further ground to make meat and bone meal.

A variation on a dry process involves finely chopping the material, fluidizing it with hot fat, and then evaporating the mixture in one or more evaporator stages. Some inedible rendering is done using a wet process, which is generally a continuous process similar in some ways to that used for edible materials. The material is heated with added steam and then pressed to remove a water-fat mixture which is then separated into fat, water and fine solids by stages of centrifuging and/or evaporation. The solids from the press are dried and then ground into meat and bone meal. Most independent renderers process only inedible material.

Bone meal is a mixture of crushed and coarsely ground bones that is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and in animal feed. As a fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus.

Bone meal once was often used as a dietary calcium supplement. Research in the 1980s found that many bone meal preparations were contaminated with lead and other toxic metals, and it is no longer recommended as a calcium source.

In the 1990s, bone meal was identified as a vector for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") among livestock. It is believed that bone meal produced in the 1970s from the corpses of sheep bearing scrapie caused BSE in cattle when it was fed to them.

As Don Earl points out on petfoodrecallfacts.com,

Darling International recalled 1.4 million pounds of meat and bone meal adulterated with melamine at the end of April 2007. As most of us will remember, this was at the height of the melamine from China hype. So, why did the FDA wait over 3 months to add the recall to its site? Also, if melamine in pet food is a Class I recall, why is melamine in the meat and bone meal used for pet food a Class III recall? Inquiring minds would like to know. (37)

I'd like to know too Don.

Strangely, the FDA CVM (Center for Veterinary Medicine) newsletter mentions the Darling recall, but makes no mention of melamine.
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/FDAVet2007VolXXIINo1.htm

A Class II recall is ongoing by Darling National LLC of Omaha, NE, involving 1.36 million pounds of its Bulk Darling’s 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried, distributed in totes and 1-lb. bags. Distribution took place in Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Colorado, and Minnesota. The product is being recalled because some of the exempt bovine blood meal was cross-contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment, and the labeling did not bear the cautionary BSE statement that it should not be fed to ruminants.

Again, all of this begs the question... what don't we know that we should know? What else is out there killing our pets?