#rawdiets
Raw diet for pets is the new buzz word on the market.
Raw diets consist of unprocessed, whole, plant based and preferably organic foods. For cats which are carnivorous it involves feeding them uncooked animal products. Some owners prefer to feed their animals raw diets. These diets can either be home cooked diets, which allow the owners to know exactly what is in the food. There are also commercially available raw diets.
Veterinary diets are diets that are specifically formulated diets that allow consistent and appropriate nutrient intake of the animal. Veterinary diets are continuously tested, with quality control measures in place and also legislation that govern the food safety aspect of the feeds.
Certain studies have been performed in order to register raw diets on the market. American studies where they compared raw food diets to veterinary formulated diets have found that the nutritional availability of the raw diets does not allow for proper growth of kittens especially (1). Important aspects that were not available to kittens were some vitamins. Taurine deficiency is a well described condition of cats, which causes severe heart problems that become irreversible leading to their painful and preventable death. Nutrient deficiencies are a major concern when feeding raw diets and it has been documented by scientific studies. Raw diets are often not formulated by nutritionists.
Another problem with unprocessed diets is that they are unprocessed, (no heat treatment is applied to remove pathogens) the amount of pathogens such as bacteria and viruses that is present on unprocessed food, becomes a health risk to the pet as well as to the owner (1). Part of the registration of a new diet are safety studies, where they take a bit of faeces and see what and how many types of bacteria grow. They found with raw diets that the presence of pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella sp and Clostridium sp in cats fed raw diets, are increased (1). These bacteria can cause illness in both animals and humans. Other pathogens found in raw food diets included Toxoplasma gondii (2)– which in humans can cause serious illness. If you are pregnant it can pass on to your fetus causing still birth or severe issues in your child such as seizures, jaundice, hearing loss, severe eye infections and liver and spleen problems. Listeria can also be found in unprocessed food. Listeriosis poses a serious health risk – as was seen in South Africa 2017-2018 – when polony could kill you. Malta fever (Brucella suis) have also been found in raw diets for pets (2).
When there are more pathogenic bacteria in any area, the chance of getting sick for pets and humans are significantly increased. Studies have also found that these raw diets often contain super bugs – these are bacteria that mutated and cannot be killed by antibiotics(2).
The Centres for Disease control does not support the feeding of raw diets due to the high infectious risks associated with them.
In summary –Raw diets have scientifically been proven to be nutritionally imbalanced and contain high loads of pathogens. In South Africa the regulation for raw diets are almost non-existent with little to no continuous quality control. Raw diets are marketed very well with testimonials, strong opinions and feel good stories however they have little to no feeding trails done on them. The safety of raw food diets has not been adequately tested. Just because they are made available commercially does not prove that they are safe.
If you love your pet and do not want to expose your loved ones to known pathogens – you will not feed your pets a raw diet.
1.Hamper BA, Bartges JW, Kirk CA. Evaluation of two raw diets vs a commercial cooked diet on feline growth. Journal of feline medicine and surgery. 2017;19(4):424-34.
2.Davies RH, Lawes JR, Wales AD. Raw diets for dogs and cats: a review, with particular reference to microbiological hazards. Journal of Small Animal Practice. 2019;60(6):329-39.