Dataset Information

Mineral analysis of complete dog and cat foods in the UK and compliance with European guidelines.

ABSTRACT: Mineral content of complete pet food is regulated to ensure health of the companion animal population. Analysis of adherence to these regulatory guidelines has not been conducted. Here, mineral composition of complete wet (n?=?97) and dry (n?=?80) canine and feline pet food sold in the UK was measured to assess compliance with EU guidelines. A majority of foods complied with ?8 of 11 guidelines (99% and 83% for dry and wet food, respectively), but many failed to provide nutritional minimum (e.g. Cu, 20% of wet food) or exceeded nutritional maximum (e.g. Se, 76% of wet food). Only 6% (6/97) of wet and 38% (30/80) of dry food were fully compliant. Some foods (20-30% of all analysed) had mineral imbalance, such as not having the recommended ratio of Ca:P (between 1:1 to 2:1). Foods with high fish content had high levels of undesirable metal elements such as arsenic. This study highlights broad non-compliance of a range of popular pet foods sold in the UK with EU guidelines (94% and 61% of wet and dry foods, respectively). If fed exclusively and over an extended period, a number of these pet foods could impact the general health of companion animals.

SUBMITTER: Davies M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5719410 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mineral analysis of complete dog and cat foods in the UK and compliance with European guidelines.

Davies M M Alborough R R Jones L L Davis C C Williams C C Gardner D S DS

Scientific reports 20171207 1

Mineral content of complete pet food is regulated to ensure health of the companion animal population. Analysis of adherence to these regulatory guidelines has not been conducted. Here, mineral composition of complete wet (n = 97) and dry (n = 80) canine and feline pet food sold in the UK was measured to assess compliance with EU guidelines. A majority of foods complied with ≥8 of 11 guidelines (99% and 83% for dry and wet food, respectively), but many failed to provide nutritional minimum (e.g. ...[more]

PMID: 29215022

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Project description:BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government implemented a series of guidelines, rules, and restrictions to change citizens' behaviour to tackle the spread of the virus, such as the promotion of face masks and the imposition of lockdown stay-at-home orders. The success of such measures requires active co-operation on the part of citizens, but compliance was not complete. Detailed research is required on the factors that aided or hindered compliance with these measures.MethodsTo understand the facilitators and barriers to compliance with COVID-19 guidelines, we used structural topic modelling, a text mining technique, to extract themes from over 26,000 free-text survey responses from 17,500 UK adults, collected between 17 November and 23 December 2020.ResultsThe main factors facilitating compliance were desires to reduce risk to oneself and one's family and friends and to, a lesser extent, the general public. Also of importance were a desire to return to normality, the availability of activities and technological means to contact family and friends, and the ability to work from home. Identified barriers were difficulties maintaining social distancing in public (due to the actions of other people or environmental constraints), the need to provide or receive support from family and friends, social isolation, missing loved ones, and mental health impacts, perceiving the risks as low, social pressure to not comply, and difficulties understanding and keep abreast of changing rules. Several of the barriers and facilitators raised were related to participant characteristics. Notably, women were more likely to discuss needing to provide or receive mental health support from friends and family.ConclusionThe results demonstrated an array of factors contributed to compliance with guidelines. Of particular policy importance, the results suggest that government communication that emphasizes the potential risks of the virus and provides simple, consistent guidance on how to reduce the spread of the virus would improve compliance with preventive behaviours as COVID-19 continues and for future pandemics.

Project description:Leishmania infantum is a vector-borne zoonotic disease transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies and dogs are considered the main reservoir of the parasite. Feline leishmaniosis (FeL) caused by L. infantum is an emergent feline disease more and more frequently reported in endemic areas. This review summarizes current knowledge focusing similarities and differences with canine leishmaniosis (CanL). Cats are infected by the same Leishmania species than dogs but prevalence of the infection is lower and cases of disease are less frequently reported. Scarce information is available on adaptive immune response of cats naturally exposed to L. infantum infection and mechanisms responsible for susceptibility or resistance of feline hosts. However, about half of clinical cases of FeL are reported in cats with possible impaired immunocompetence. Coinfections or comorbidities are frequently detected in sick cats and they can contribute to a misrepresentation of clinical FeL albeit lesions associated with the presence of the parasite have been detected in skin, lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, liver, oral mucosa, stomach, large bowel, kidney, nasal exudate, lung, eye. As for dogs, skin or mucocutaneous lesions are the most common reason for veterinary consultation and finding on physical examination in cats with leishmaniosis. Molecular investigations of Leishmania DNA and anti- Leishmania antibody detection are largely used with the same methodologies for both CanL and FeL, however few information is available about their diagnostic performance in feline hosts. Treatment of cats with clinical FeL is still empirically based and off label by using the most common drugs prescribed to dogs. Life expectancy of cats with clinical FeL is usually good unless concurrent conditions or complications occur and prognosis does not seem significantly influenced by therapy or retroviral coinfection. According to current knowledge, cats can play a role as additional reservoir host of L. infantum and, in a « One Health » perspective, preventative measures should be taken. In conclusion, albeit feline infection and the associated cat disease caused by L. infantum is increasingly reported in endemic areas and have many similarities with CanL, consolidated evidence-based knowledge is not available and we cannot exclude that important differences between dogs and cats exist about transmission, immunopathogenesis and best practice for management and prevention.

Project description:BackgroundThese days the number of potential food allergens is very large, but chicken is one of the most common allergens in dogs. Elimination diet is one of the clinical tools for the diagnosis of allergies and allergy tests are not very reliable. The restriction diet is most commonly carried out by feeding pet foods, relying on the ingredients on the label to select an elimination diet not containing previously eaten foods. Unfortunately, mislabeling of pet food is quite common. The purpose of this study was to determine the absence or presence of chicken DNA using both qualitative and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis methods in dry and wet maintenance complete pet foods for adult dogs. Results were used to verify the declared composition on the labels.ResultsEleven out of fifteen (73%) dog foods were produced as declared by the manufacturer, two of which showed the presence of chicken protein as stated on the label. The remaining nine foods contained amounts of chicken DNA below 1%, consistent with declarations that no chicken was added in the composition. Four of tested dog foods (27%) were not produced consistently with the declaration on the packaging. Two dog foods (one dry and one wet) did not contain the claimed chicken protein. In two foods the addition of chicken DNA was detected at the level of over 2% and almost 6%, respectively.ConclusionsIn this study, we focused on one of the most commonly undeclared animal species on the label-chicken protein-and performed DNA analyzes to investigate possible contamination and mislabeling. The results showed some inaccuracies. However, most of them are trace amounts below 1%, which proves compliance with the label. Our results showed that undeclared animal species can be as common as missing an animal protein declared on the label. The conducted research indicates that both dry and wet analyzed foods should not be recommended as a diagnostic tool in elimination tests, because it may result in false negative results. Over-the-counter maintenance foods for dogs should not be recommended for the diagnosis and treatment of food hypersensitivity.

Dataset Information

Mineral analysis of complete dog and cat foods in the UK and compliance with European guidelines.

Publications

Mineral analysis of complete dog and cat foods in the UK and compliance with European guidelines.

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