Uncooked meat-based pet diets have turn out to be extra fashionable lately and will be present in almost any pet provide retailer. We’ve beforehand mentioned potential well being dangers of uncooked meat diets for each pets and for the individuals who work together with the pet. It has been well-documented that each industrial uncooked pet meals and uncooked meats offered for human consumption have excessive charges of contamination with harmful micro organism, lots of that are antibiotic resistant. Nevertheless, it’s our expertise that many pet homeowners are nonetheless unaware of human well being dangers from uncooked pet meals, together with widespread treats corresponding to pig ears, bully sticks, and most freeze-dried meat treats (like freeze-dried liver treats).
There have been quite a few incidents which have confirmed that uncooked pet merchandise do make folks sick and in uncommon instances have really induced human deaths. An outbreak of Salmonella linked to pig ear canine treats sickened greater than 150 folks within the US in 2019. 4 infections with E.coli O157:H7, which resulted in a single dying, had been reported in 2017 and a number of other pet homeowners and a veterinarian had been contaminated with a pressure of tuberculosis from their cats that had been contaminated from consuming a industrial uncooked food plan within the UK in 2019! These are only a few examples of an even bigger drawback.
Regardless of these reviews and lots of different scientific publications documenting dangers, many pet homeowners who feed uncooked diets or treats are unaware of the dangers and don’t take applicable security measures to guard themselves and their households. This lack of information or applicable evaluation of threat could also be partly as a result of many on-line sources and proponents of raw-feeding hype potential advantages (sometimes regardless of an absence of scientific proof) whereas downplaying or ignoring potential dangers.
A small analysis examine printed early final 12 months investigated the meals security information, practices, and perceptions of 174 pet homeowners who feed uncooked diets. In that survey, 95% of pet homeowners had been “very assured” that their dealing with of their pet’s meals was protected and 89% didn’t understand that they or their household had been liable to meals borne-illness. A equally giant share (84%) had been additionally assured of their cleansing and sanitizing practices.
Nevertheless, on the identical time, nearly all of respondents reported they didn’t at all times use protected meals dealing with processes corresponding to thawing uncooked meat for his or her pets within the fridge or utilizing separate utensils and meals prep areas for his or her pet’s meals. Different dangerous practices reported included rinsing uncooked meat within the sink, not at all times washing their fingers after prepping their pet’s meals, or not utilizing disinfectants to wash surfaces, utensils, and pet meals bowls after meals prep or meals.
The bulk (87%) of the pet homeowners cited the web as their foremost supply of knowledge on uncooked diets; solely 8% reported asking a veterinarian for meals security info. Solely 12% of pet homeowners had been conscious that Campylobacter is a standard contaminant of uncooked meat and solely 36% had been conscious that foodborne sickness could possibly be deadly.
Whereas this survey solely included a small variety of pet homeowners, the outcomes, together with the medical expertise of many veterinarians and Board Licensed Veterinary Nutritionist® , counsel that many pet homeowners who feed uncooked meals to their pets might underestimate their threat of sickness whereas overestimating their potential to arrange their pet’s meals within the most secure method to guard their pets and themselves from foodborne pathogens. Whereas we positively don’t suggest feeding uncooked diets resulting from their well being and security dangers, in the event you make the selection to feed uncooked meals or treats to your pet, whether or not home-prepared or industrial, it is rather necessary to observe correct meals security dealing with procedures and procure goal info from respected sources.
Image by Lebensmittelfotos on Pixabay
Cailin R. Heinze, VMD, MS, DACVIM (Vitamin)
Dr. Cailin Heinze is a Board Licensed Veterinary Nutritionist® and the Chief Educational Officer of the Mark Morris Institute, a non-profit group whose mission is to advertise optimum companion animal well being by offering instructional alternatives for veterinary college students and veterinarians in medical vitamin. She additionally does some part-time consulting work for Stability IT, an organization that makes software program and dietary supplements for home-cooked pet diets. She is an knowledgeable in home-cooked food plan formulation and common pet vitamin and has a particular curiosity in feeding pets with kidney illness and most cancers.
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