Raw diets have been in the news a lot lately because of Salmonella contamination. It’s not surprising at all since bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter and Listeria are expected to be found in raw meat (that’s why we cook it). We know that dogs and cats fed raw meat are at increased risk of
Raw pet food recall and human illness, Minnesota, USA
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has recalled some lots of raw pet food from Woody’s Pet Food Deli, after linking them to a human infection. The link isn’t definite, but was obviously enough to prompt a recall.
The situation involves a person who developed salmonellosis and, as is typical, an investigation of possible sources
Raw pet food and human salmonellosis
We’ve known for some time that there are human health risks from feeding pets raw meat-based diets. Most of the evidence of this has been anecdotal, as published reports have been sparse. A few better documented reports have started to appear, including the fatal E. coli O157 infection I wrote about recently.
A few days
Raw pet food and human illness
Human health risks from raw pet food (either from exposure to pathogens in the food or in the feces of pets eating the food) are known to exist but they’re not well characterized. We know that dogs fed raw meat-based diets clearly have increased risk of shedding various pathogens, particularly Salmonella and multidrug resistant E.
Freeze dried vs fresh vs frozen raw pet foods
I think I’ve covered this before (probably a few times), but the question keeps coming up so it can’t hurt to talk about it again:
“Is freeze-dried raw pet food any different than fresh or frozen raw diets, from a microbiological standpoint?”
We don’t have much pet food-specific research, but there’s little reason
Brucellosis in a dog, raw meat origin
A recent report from the Netherlands in Emerging Infectious Diseases (van Dijk et al 2018) describes a new twist on raw feeding concerns, Brucella suis infection. Here’s the short version of the story:
A dog in the Netherlands developed fever, ascites (fluid free in the abdomen) and inflammation of the testicles. After failing to respond
Salmonella in raw pet food: Kitten death and recall
I haven’t written much lately about recalls of raw pet food because of Salmonella contamination. In large part that’s because it’s essentially an expected event. There are very good reasons why we cook food – one is to kill things that can make us sick. We assume that raw meat intended for our consumption
Yet another reason not to feed raw chicken
As if another reason was needed, a recent study from Australia (Martinez-Anton et al. 2018 J Vet Internal Med) found a strong association between dogs that consume raw chicken meat and a serious neurological condition known as acute polyradiculoneuritis (APN). APN is comparable to Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in humans. The main objective of
Salmonella in kids linked to raw pet food
When we have discussions about the risks of feeding raw meat to dogs and cats, a frequent refrain is “where are the published reports of people getting sick?” While we know some illnesses occur, they tend not to get investigated to the level that they are published, which is problematic when trying to demonstrate the
Raw Pet Food and Human Salmonellosis Outbreak
According to an alert from the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia:
The BC Centre for Disease Control is collaborating with BC health authorities, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Health Canada to investigate an outbreak of Salmonella infections in British Columbia likely related to raw pet food. Raw pet food is food