The Seven Signs of a Healthy Cat Diet

Although diet is among many factors affecting cat’s health, appearance and behavior, feeding felines a high-quality meal is an essential and wise move.

Although diet is among many factors affecting cat’s health, appearance and behavior, feeding felines a high-quality meal is an essential and wise move. Here are seven signs a cat is thriving on a well-balanced, nutritious cat food:

1. A shiny coat. A cat’s coat should be plush and shiny, says Dr. Margie Scherk, DVM, DABVP (feline), a past president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners and editor of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. “Matting or flaking are suggestive of poor dental health, arthritic pain or poor nutrition,’’ says Dr. Scherk. Lack of protein can be the culprit. Cat food should contain crude protein levels of at least 30% in dry food and 8% in wet food.

2. Good teeth and gums. “Good dental health includes not just having strong, white teeth but also — and arguably more important — healthy, moist, pink gums that cover the roots of those teeth without bleeding or excess gum tissue,’’ Dr. Scherk says. Dry food may help some cats in keeping the tips of their teeth clean, says Scherk.

3. Digestion and hairball care. You can tell a lot about your cat’s diet when you scoop the poop. Look for moist, formed “logs” with a “pungent odor that is neither sour nor excessive,’’ advises Dr. Scherk. Switching to canned cat food, adding water to cat’s food or offering a water fountain are options to help cats get the water it needs and avoid dehydration. Loose fecal matter could be a sign of digestion problems, food intolerance, inflammation, infection or even a serious illness, such as cancer. Special hairball formula cat foods offer fiber that helps move the hair along the digestive tract.

4. A healthy weight. Veterinarians might recommend that consumers feed their cats a food designed for weight management or for older cats, which are often less active and burn fewer calories.

5. A strong immune system. If cats eat a complete and balanced diet, they are more likely to fight off illnesses. Veterinary nutritionists are researching the role antioxidants might play in promoting a healthy immune system in cats, as they do in humans, says Dr. Scherk. You’ll find Vitamin E and antioxidants from sources such as tomatoes and spinach in some commercial cat foods, particularly those that emphasize natural ingredients.

6. Strong bones. Sometimes, devoted cat owners who try to feed their cats a homemade diet make the unfortunate mistake of not providing bone meal, says Dr. Scherk. This can lead to bone fractures. If a problem is suspected, veterinarians can use X-rays to evaluate the cat’s bone density. A well-formulated cat food should include calcium.

7. A healthy heart. Diet plays a critical role in cat’s heart health. For instance, feeding felines table scraps rather than a well-balanced, nutritious commercial food can lead to a deficiency of taurine, a critical amino acid. Taurine deficiency can lead to heart problems and even heart failure.

Mars Petcare Recalls Dog Food

From Pet Food Industry:

Mars said it issued the recall after a component of the food that tested positive for Salmonella was inadvertently shipped.

Mars Petcare US, the company which also manufactures the recently scrutinized Nutro line of dog food, recalled 100 of its 20-pound bags of Pedigree Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites. The recall is a result of a logistical error, according to the company. Mars said it issued the recall after a component of the food that tested positive for Salmonella was inadvertently shipped to its Tracy, California, USA-based plant.

More here: Mars Petcare Recalls Dog Food and here: Pedigree recalls bagged variety of pet food

New Pet Treat Offerings

Not exactly pet food safety related, but a little jaunt around the blogosphere landed me at this blog on nowpublic, which was discussing some fascinating new types of pet treats coming out on the market.

They run the gamut from functional (helping pets with everything from cancer to gas), to frilly (bottled water for pets). Either way, it is something to keep our eyes on…who knows what sort of safety issues could pop up when these start hitting the market in force!

FDA Discusses Pet Food Labeling and Safety

FDA discusses pet food labeling and safety

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held public meetings over two consecutive days in mid-May to discuss issues pertaining to pet foods. The first meeting invited comment on implementation of the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA), while in the second meeting the agency provided an update on its Animal Feed Safety System (AFSS).

Not much debate on FDAAA

Among the mandates imposed under the new law, FDA has until September 2009 to promulgate new regulations relating to labeling, nutrition and ingredient standards for pet foods.

To assist in the process, FDA provided a series of questions in a federal register notice on which it sought input. The questions were open ended; for example, “How can the feeding directions already present on the label be improved?” and “What kind of ingredient definitions would provide adequate information?”and touched on a wide array of pet food issues. It was hoped these questions would prompt considerable discussion at the meeting.

While reasonably well attended, the meeting did not spark much public debate. FDA purposefully had little to say (the meeting was to collect outside opinions, and assumedly the agency did not want to hinder that process by espousing any preconceived positions of its own).

Only three outside groups offered verbal comments:

• The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) made some brief remarks regarding implications new federal regulations would have on the current state regulatory oversight of petfoods;
• The American Veterinary Medical Association voiced support for mandatory calorie content statements on dog and cat foods and put forth a very interesting proposal to require a “not evaluated by FDA” disclaimer on petfoods bearing health-related claims; and
• Defend Our Pets, a consumer advocacy organization formed as a result of last year’s recalls, made the most extensive comments. The group presented a long list of suggestions, including some form of country of origin labeling (e.g., disclaimers when the product contains ingredients from countries that do not meet US standards) and “total elimination” of what it considers confusing and misleading labeling requirements (apparently from the AAFCO Model Pet Food Regulations). This organization also recommended actions beyond FDA’s authority to implement on its own (e.g., mandatory recall authority, approval of grants by petfood companies to veterinary schools).

Scheduled for a full day, the meeting lasted only a couple of hours, even with a long break in the middle. Because the due date for submission of written comments on this matter was a month later, most organizations with a stake in the matter decided to withhold verbal comment until they could evaluate the comments of others and react at a later time.

In fact, the written comments, posted on www.regulations.gov (re: Docket #FDA-2007-N-0442), are extensive and include input from many organizations, including the Pet Food Institute, the American Feed Industry Association and both the American College and Academy of Veterinary Nutrition.

Questions about AFSS

FDA has been working on AFSS for a number of years prior to passage of FDAAA in an effort to develop a comprehensive, risk-based approach to animal feed safety, including pet food safety. The agency has held a number of meetings on the subject over the past few years (see Petfood Industry Magazine, August 2007 and November 2006).

The May 2008 meeting was held to give an update on FDA’s progress as it further refines the AFSS. Compared to the previous day’s meeting on FDAAA, this meeting did last a much greater portion of the scheduled full day, primarily because FDA gave a number of presentations that prompted some questions from the attendees.

A key point of progress included a revised draft of the AFSS framework document. It identifies gaps FDA sees in the present oversight of feed safety and proposes means by which those gaps can be addressed.

For example, FDA considers lack of a comprehensive list of all ingredients allowed in animal feeds as a part of its own regulations to be a deficiency. However, the recently signed memorandum of understanding between FDA and AAFCO that allows the former greater oversight of the latter’s ingredient approval process, as well as plans to finalize and implement the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) notification rule, is proposed to help address this gap.

Much of the meeting focused on FDA’s continued efforts to rank the relative risk of chemical and microbiological feed contaminants for the purpose of establishing, in part, enforcement priorities and allocation of resources. This is accomplished by a process of assigning scores to rate the potential health consequences of and likelihood of exposure to various contaminants, which eventually results in a number that can be compared to those calculated for other contaminants. Unfortunately, the very detailed presentations at the May meeting on how to do the ranking do not appear to be posted on the agency’s website as of the time of this writing.

Separate pet foods from feed?

AFSS is intended to address pet food as well as livestock feed safety. To me, this makes sense, as it would allow for a more effective and efficient program to the benefit of all. Interestingly enough, Defend Our Pets is adamantly opposed to grouping petfood with feed in the system. Notwithstanding that AFSS has been in development since 2003, the consumer group believes AFSS would “dilute the intent and authority” of FDAAA.

In fact, while FDA is currently trying to extend and incorporate the FDAAA mandates into the system, Defend Our Pets apparently perceives an AFSS that includes petfood to be little more than a veiled effort to diffuse attention away from the petfood industry.

New Aflatoxin Test Released

See www.vicam.com:

VICAM has expanded their line of mycotoxin test kits to include AflaCheck: a qualitative, one step immunoassay method for the detection of aflatoxin. AflaCheck provides fast and accurate, yes or no results for the presence of aflatoxin at levels as low as 10 ppb, according to the company, with an alternative testing protocol for detecting levels in excess of 20 ppb and improving pet food safety. VICAM also states that this test is able to provide results in as little as 3 minutes, in the field or in the lab, and without the use of expensive equipment or reagent chemicals.

Menu Foods On the Rebound

Menu Foods Income Fund says its business is on the way to recovering from the impact of last year’s pet food recalls, although on a smaller scale. The pet food maker said it lost it lost an estimated US$2.2 million or 10.8 cents per unit for the three months ended March 31, 2008 compared with a loss of US$17.5 million or 91.8 cents per unit a year ago. Quarterly revenue was US$55.6 million, down from US$64.5 million.

Investors cheered the news. “We have made considerable progress and our prospects look better today than at any other time during this past year,” president and chief executive Paul Henderson said in a statement. “As we move the business forward, we do so focusing on our core competency – the manufacture of high quality wet pet food. We will continue to work to solidify our customer base and further adjust our cost structure in line with our ongoing business.”

In April 2008, Menu Foods reached a “comprehensive cross-border agreement in principle” on litigation arising from its tainted petfood scandal. The mediated settlement of the case, which combined an array of class-action suits filed in the United States, came just over a year after the recalls. Dozens of cases against Menu Foods and many of the companies that own the private label pet foods were consolidated in a federal court in Camden, New Jersey, USA. The definitive terms of the deal, together with a motion for preliminary approval thereof, are scheduled to be filed with the US District Court on May 20, 2008, with a hearing scheduled on May 30, 2008. The scheduling for Canadian court is expected to occur at roughly the same time.

FDA Gives Pet Food a Loophole to By-Pass Law

From the American Chronicle

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) is a set of laws passed by Congress in 1938 giving authority to the FDA to oversee and take legal action to protect the safety of food, drugs, and cosmetics – there have been many revisions over the years. According to FFDCA the definition of ´food´ is: “Food” means articles used for food or drink for man or other animals and components of such articles (section 201 (f)). That definition is very clear – FFDCA covers food for humans and animals; our pets would be considered ´animals´ under the law.

[...]

Our FDA friends have provided an official loophole to allow pet food to by-pass the law. Section 690.300 of the compliance manual states: “Pet food consisting of material from diseased animals or animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, which is in violation of 402 (a) (5) will not ordinarily be actionable, if it is not otherwise in violation of the law. It will be considered fit for animal consumption.” The law clearly states ´food´ means human and animal food, the law clearly prohibits use of diseased animals in food or animals which have died other than by slaughter in food; yet millions of U.S. pets every single day are eating a pet food that contains diseased euthanized animals. Thanks a lot for that FDA.

See the rest of the article: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/70261

Report Links 2006 Salmonella Infections to Dry Dog Food

Report links 2006 Salmonella infections to dry dog food

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have revealed a strong link of Salmonella infection in humans to contaminated dry dog food, the first time such a link has been uncovered, according to US officials. Furthermore, Salmonella infections from dry dog food may be an under-recognized source of illness in people, especially young children, officials from the CDC said. “This is the first time human illness has been linked to dry dog food,” said CDC epidemiologist Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, who co-authored a report on the finding.

The CDC isn’t sure how the Salmonella bacteria got into the pet food. “There are a number of possible ways that that could happen, and that’s something we are still trying to figure out,” Dr. Barton Behravesh said, adding that there have been previous cases of people contracting Salmonella infection from contaminated pet treats. The incidents of people becoming infected with Salmonella from dry dog food occurred in 2006 and 2007.

An estimated 70 people, mostly in the Northeast region of the US, were infected by dog food produced by Mars Petcare at its Pennsylvania, USA plant. About 40% of those infections involved infants, according to the report, published in the May 16, 2008 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Most of the cases occurred in Pennsylvania (29), New York (nine) and Ohio (seven). There were also reported cases in Alabama, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia. No deaths were reported, according to the report. No pets became ill. However, Salmonella was identified in feces samples from dogs that ate the dry food.

In addition, Salmonella was found in open bags of the petfood fed to the dogs and in unopened bags of dog food made in the Pennsylvania, USA plant, the CDC said. Mars Petcare voluntarily recalled some bags of the two pet food brands of food involved, but neither of the recalled brands was related to human illness.

Salmonella infection typically comes from undercooked eggs, poultry, or meat, but can also result from direct contact with farm animals, reptiles and pets. To prevent infection, the CDC recommends consumers wash their hands immediately after handling the food, including dry dog food. “The most important thing is to wash your hands right after you handle any dry dog food, any other petfood, pet treats, even supplements or vitamins,” Barton Behravesh said. “In addition, keep infants and other young children away from petfood, because kids tend to want to see what their dogs are eating and grab at it and play with it or even put it in their mouth.”

AVMA Urges Pet Food Makers to List Calories on Packaging

AVMA urges pet food makers to list calories

Future pet food labels that indicate the number of calories per serving could help obese pets shed extra pounds, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has recommended to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Pet owners do not always know how much to feed. They may not realize the high number of calories associated with some of the petfood,” said John Branam, testifying on behalf of the AVMA.

The FDA held the hearing last week as part of legislation last year requiring the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to establish pet food labeling standards in two years. According to the AVMA, 54 million pets in the US are obese, an “epidemic” that the association says is growing at an alarming rate.

But Nancy Cook, vice president of the Pet Food Institute’s technical and regulatory affairs, said calorie labels are unnecessary and won’t prevent obesity in pets. Many petfood labels already contain serving sizes based on a pet’s size. Calorie information can be obtained from food manufacturers, Cook also said.

But the AVMA said it’s not the jobs of consumers and veterinarians to track down pet food manufacturers for that information. A standard nutritional label that lists the number of calories per weight of food and per household items such as a can or a cup would prevent owners from overfeeding their pets, the AVMA said. The information also would help consumers and veterinarians compare and choose the best food product, Branam said. For example, two cups of one product could have the same calories as one cup of another product.