Alternative Diets
Alternative diets are those that are not the standard
canned or Kibble diets. Over 50 years ago, alternative diets would be
considered a normal diet for companion animals. Since the advent of kibble, the
ease of manufacturing, the economics of the ingredient sources . the convenience
to the consumer, and the global economy, dry and canned pet foods have become the standard for both cats and
dogs.
Pet feeding practices were examined by a
telephone survey in 5 locations in the USA and one in Australia. The survey confirmed that veterinarians are
the most common sources of information about pet health and nutrition. Over
90%of pet dogs and cats were fed a commercial diet, with 25%of the diet
comprised of table scrapes, raw foods and home prepared foods in 17.3% of dogs
and 6.3% of cats. Australia had the most numbers feeding raw foods an only 2.5%
fed therapeutic diets (Laflamme D.P., Abood S.K., Facetti A.J. et al. 2008 Pet
feeding practices of dog and cat owners in the United States and Australia. J
AM VET Med Ass 232(5):687-694)
Raw Pet Foods
AVMA and AAHA Partnership
On July 18, 2012 the and American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) announced the formation of partnerships o in preventive health care for pets in order to address the declining health of the nation's pets. Members of the partnership include the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), Association of the American Veterinary Medical Colleges, and health industry leaders including Abbott Animal Health ,Banfield Pet Hospital, their healthcare LLC animal health division, Boehringer-Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc, ButlerSchein Animal Health, Elanco Animal Health, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Merek Animal Health, Merial,MVVI Veterinary Supply, Novartis Animal Health US Inc., Pfizer Animal Health and Veterinary Pet Insurance all sponsoring initiative at various levels. This partnership was formed because of a decrease in regular veterinary visits and an increase in preventable illnesses in dogs and cats.
On July 18, 2012 the and American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) announced the formation of partnerships o in preventive health care for pets in order to address the declining health of the nation's pets. Members of the partnership include the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), Association of the American Veterinary Medical Colleges, and health industry leaders including Abbott Animal Health ,Banfield Pet Hospital, their healthcare LLC animal health division, Boehringer-Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc, ButlerSchein Animal Health, Elanco Animal Health, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Merek Animal Health, Merial,MVVI Veterinary Supply, Novartis Animal Health US Inc., Pfizer Animal Health and Veterinary Pet Insurance all sponsoring initiative at various levels. This partnership was formed because of a decrease in regular veterinary visits and an increase in preventable illnesses in dogs and cats.
A task force assembled by the American Animal Hospital
Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association developed and approved concise easy to
understand comprehensive preventive
health care guidelines for dogs and cats. For more information visit the
website www.PetHealthPartnership
At the AVMA 2012regular annual session passed Resolution 5, stating "the AVMA
discourages the feeding to cats and dogs of any animal based protein source
that has not first been subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens because
of the risk of illness to cats and dogs as well as humans".
AAHA has
come out with a similar statement indicating raw protein diets are now
demonstrated to be a health risk for several groups:
Ø the pets
consuming the diet
Ø Other
animals in contact with those pets
Ø humans, and
family members
Ø The public
