Dear Sir:
I applaud Drs. Stogdale and Diehl for their commitment to nutritional continuing education. As to their comment “the majority of veterinarians do not elect to spend their continuing education time on studying this field; it's so much easier and more efficient to recommend a bag of commercial pet food,” I take offence. The reason why I will recommend a "bag of commercial pet food" from one of the science-based food companies is because those companies have proven to me (most often with the peer reviewed results of scientific study) that their products are safe, nutritionally complete, and efficacious for both maintenance and therapeutic purposes. Proponents of raw food diets have yet to provide any proof as to the safety, efficacy, or completeness of the diets they recommend.
I also applaud the efforts put forward by Drs. Stogdale and Diehl in educating their clients on how to feed home cooked diets. Unfortunately, all of the possible training and education does not alter the fact that pet foods made up of raw foods carry many pathogens with veterinary and zoonotic potential. It has been well documented that raw meat diets may contain Salmonella spp, Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Campylobacter spp, Yersinia enterolitica, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium perfringens, C. botulinum, Staphylococcus aureus, or Bacillus cereus (1,2). Despite the fact that the authors of the letter recommend that owners not feed raw pork, fish, or wild game, the presence of these pathogens in other meat sources (especially chicken and beef (1,2)) has been well documented.
Today's pets live in close contact with their human companions. As long as pets eat in our kitchens, sleep in our beds, and lick our children's faces, no amount of client education will obviate the fact that feeding foods that can harbor potentially pathogenic bacteria carries the risk of zoonotic spread of these organisms. Given this fact alone, I stand firmly behind my previous statement that to recommend raw food diets to clients (in the face of the present scientific data) is a poor choice.
Daniel Joffe, DVM, Dip ABVP (companion animal specialty)
Landing Animal Clinic
C155-1600–90th Avenue South West
Calgary, Alberta T2V 5A8
Footnotes
Letters to the Editor on topics of general veterinary interest are solicited, and ongoing debate on controversial topics is encouraged through this feature. Also welcomed are letters which challenge, support, or add to articles appearing in the CVJ in the previous two months. Authors will be allowed one month for reply, so that their reply may appear with the relevant letter in the same issue, usually within two months of receipt. Letters must be signed by all authors, should not exceed 500 words (two double-spaced typewritten pages), and may be abridged and edited as necessary. Financial associations or other possible conflicts of interest should always be disclosed.
References
- 1.Lejeune JT, Hancock DD. Public health concerns associated with feeding raw meat diets to dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001;219:1222–1225. [DOI] [PubMed]
- 2.Joffe DJ, Schlesinger DP. Preliminary assessment of the risk of Salmonella infection in dogs fed raw chicken diets. Can Vet J 2003;43:441–442. [PMC free article] [PubMed]