Debunking Raw Food Diets​

Raw food diets are not helpful or recommended in veterinary medicine for 3 reasons:

1) They do not treat or cure any disease. Food allergy is directed against a protein (beef, dairy, and chicken most commonly¹ ) and feeding them raw chicken or beef doesn’t change anything- they’re still eating a protein to which they’re allergic. If you suspect your pet has a food allergy (either because they have gastrointestinal problems or skin/ear problems) then you need a hypoallergenic novel protein diet, meaning a single source of protein and a single source of carbohydrate to which the pet has never before been exposed. Over the counter diets that claim to be limited ingredient are often contaminated with regular dog food², so they are not appropriate for a food allergic patient. A commercially available prescription diet or a home-prepared novel protein diet (with cooked meat) under the guidance of your veterinarian is the best recommendation. Commercially available prescription hypoallergenic diets from companies such as Royal Canin, Hill’s, Purina, or Rayne are guaranteed to be pure. They are either made in separate factories or have stringent cleaning procedures between batches, and they are tested for contamination. Beware that it only takes an incredibly small amount of offending protein to make a food allergic pet react, so any treats, rawhides, flavored medications (heartworm and flea preventative), or pill pockets must be temporarily discontinued during the 8 week diet trial (use topical heartworm and flea preventions temporarily instead).

2) Dogs are not wolves. Dogs were domesticated by humans between 14,700⁶ to 36,000⁷ years ago, and they are a completely different species from wolves. In the thousands of years they’ve been living with humans (and eating our scraps), dogs developed a much different GI tract from wolves. They have ten canine-specific genes with roles in starch and fat metabolism that were altered from their wolf ancestors, increasing the amount of amylase they produce and allowing dogs to eat more of our starchrich diet.⁸ This means that dogs are meant to eat some amount of carbohydrates, along with protein and fat. Dogs are omnivores.

3) Raw diets are not more natural. Some people believe that feeding a raw diet is closer to what wolves in the wild eat, and therefore healthier for their pet. There are a few flaws to this logic. First, wolves eat freshly killed prey. There is not time for harmful bacteria and mold to divide and overgrow when the animal is eaten only minutes after death. Compare that to our modern agricultural industry, where animals are slaughtered, processed, packaged, and shipped to your local store. Think about how much time that gives bacteria to proliferate. Ground meat that was slaughtered and packaged days or weeks ago is not what dogs in nature would be eating.

4) Raw food diets may not be nutritionally balanced, especially for cats with their increased dietary needs for taurine^3-4 and arachidonic acid.⁵

5) Raw food diets are a public health risk, both to pets and humans, because numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies have documented Salmonella spp, Campylobacter spp, Clostridium spp, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus growing in raw pet food diets and infecting pets.^9-15 We all accept the idea that we need to wash our hands and disinfect any plates or surfaces that have touched raw meat. Why would that concept not extend to your pet’s food bowl? Pathogenic bacteria can cause GI illness in dogs and cats just like humans, and I personally know of a large number of dogs fed raw-food diets that ended up in the emergency room with life-threatening GI bugs. These poor pet owners wound up paying over $10,000 to save their dogs’ lives! Pet suffering and financial losses are bad enough, but I hate to think about what could happen if a pet eats contaminated raw food for dinner, then licks a child in the face? Children, elderly family members, and any immunecompromised individual (pregnant women, anyone on chemotherapy, patients with HIV/AIDS, or anyone taking immune-suppressing drugs for diseases like psoriasis or lupus) could be put at risk with raw meat and contaminated food bowls around the house. Some never studies have even found an association between pets eating raw food diets and drug-resistant bacteria in the community.

Conclusion: Raw food diets do not have any scientifically-backed benefit to pets and there are many scientifically verified risks to feeding raw food diets. It will always be your choice when it comes to what to feed your pet, but this board-certified veterinary dermatologist® does not ever recommend feeding a raw food diet.

Additional Reading:

1. https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Pages/Raw-or-Undercooked-Animal-Source-Protein-in-Cat-andDog-Diets.aspx
   
   
2. https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/AnimalHealthLiteracy/ucm373757.htm
   
   

References:

1. Critically appraised topic on adverse food reactions of companion animals (2): common food allergen sources in dogs and cats. Mueller RS, Olivry T, Prélaud P. BMC Vet Res. 2016 Jan 12;12:9. doi: 10.1186/s12917-016-0633-8.
   
   
2. Critically appraised topic on adverse food reactions of companion animals (5): discrepancies between ingredients and labeling in commercial pet foods. Olivry T, Mueller RS. BMC Vet Res. 2018 Jan 22;14(1):24. doi: 10.1186/s12917-018-1346-y.
   
   
3. Pion PD, Kittleson MD, Rogers QR et al. (1987) Myocardial failure in cats associated with low plasma taurine: a reversible cardiomyopathy. Science 237, 764–768
   
   
4. Hayes KC, Carey RE & Schmidt SY (1975) Retinal degeneration associated with taurine deficiency in the cat. Science 188, 949–951
   
   
5. Bauer JE. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2006 Dec 1;229(11):1729-32. Metabolic basis for the essential nature of fatty acids and the unique dietary fatty acid requirements of cats.
   
   
6. Liane Giemsch, Susanne C. Feine, Kurt W. Alt, Qiaomei Fu, Corina Knipper, Johannes Krause, Sarah Lacy, Olaf Nehlich, Constanze Niess, Svante Pääbo, Alfred Pawlik, Michael P. Richards, Verena Schünemann, Martin Street, Olaf Thalmann, Johann Tinnes, Erik Trinkaus & Ralf W. Schmitz. “Interdisciplinary investigations of the late glacial double burial from Bonn-Oberkassel”. Hugo Obermaier Society for Quaternary Research and Archaeology of the Stone Age: 57th Annual Meeting in Heidenheim, 7th – 11th April 2015, 36-37
   
   
7. Germonpre, M. (2009). “Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: Osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes”. Journal of Archaeological Science. 36 (2): 473–490. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.09.033.
   
   
8. Erik Axelsson et al. The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starchrich diet. Nature volume495, pages360–364 (21 March 2013) doi:10.1038/nature11837
   
   
9. Joffe DJ, Schlesinger DP. Preliminary assessment of the risk of Salmonella infection in dogs fed raw chicken diets. Can Vet J 2002;43:441–442.
   
   
10. Finley R, Reid-Smith R, Weese JS, et al. Human health implications of Salmonellacontaminated natural pet treats and raw pet food. Clin Infect Dis. 2006;42:686-691.
    
    
11. Stiver SL, Frazier KS, Mauel MJ, et al. Septicemic salmonellosis in two cats fed a raw-meat diet. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 2003;39:538–542.
    
    
12. LeJune JT, Hancock DD. Public health concerns associated with feeding raw meat diets to dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001;219:1222–1225.
    
    
13. Freeman LM, Michel KE. Evaluation of raw food diets for dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2001;218:705-709.
    
    
14. Weese SJ, Rousseau J, Arroyo L. Bacteriological evaluation of commercial canine and feline raw diets. Can Vet J 2005;46:513–516.
    
    
15. L. Martinez-Anton, M. Marenda, S.M. Firestone, et al; Volume 32, Issue 1 January/February 2018, Pages 352–360, JVIM. Investigation of the Role of Campylobacter Infection in Suspected Acute Polyradiculoneuritis in Dogs