The petition still must go through a lengthy analysis of data by panels on nutrition, toxicology and chemistry, a process that may take so long that products will not be on the shelves in Canada until next year, if it receives approval. Olestra has already been under consideration for three years, and Health Canada still has some concerns and questions. If olestra snacks go on sale first in the United States, Canadian dieters may try to smuggle their supplies in. Health Canada says that customs can seize any food coming into the country with a non-permitted ingredient. In Lake Huron, the number of fish with the disease dropped from 16 per cent in 1993 to 5 percent last year.
All salmon carry the bacteria that cause the kidney disease.
Scientists have not determined why the illness began killing thousands of Lake Michigan chinook in 1987. The disease is transmitted from sick fish through the water and to the eggs of their offspring. Humans are not believed to be susceptible to it. Another feature about the trend toward integrated pig farming, recalling the disaster last June, when heavy rains burst the 8-acre lagoon holding 25 million gallons of feces and urine from 12,000 pigs at one North Carolina facility. In 1988, just 7 percent of the nation's hogs were raised in factory farms.