The FDA is investigating a potential link between certain diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy. Here's an update to the investigation:
In July 2018, the FDA announced that it had begun investigating reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain pet foods, many labeled as "grain-free," which contained a high proportion of peas, lentils, other legume seeds (pulses), and/or potatoes in various forms (whole, flour, protein, etc.) as main ingredients (listed within the first 10 ingredients in the ingredient list, before vitamins and minerals). Many of these case reports included breeds of dogs not previously known to have a genetic predisposition to the disease. The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN), a collaboration of government and veterinary diagnostic laboratories, continue to investigate this potential association. Based on the data collected and analyzed thus far, the agency believes that the potential association between diet and DCM in dogs is a complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors.
We understand the concern that pet owners have about these reports: the illnesses can be severe, even fatal, and many cases report eating “grain-free” labeled pet food. The FDA is using a range of science-based investigative tools as it strives to learn more about this emergence of DCM and its potential link to certain diets or ingredients.
Following an update in February 2019 that covered investigative activities through November 30, 2018, this is the FDA’s third public report on the status of this investigation.
The rest of the update can be found here:
https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/news-events/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy?trk_msg=HUT3592MO7P4NARMEIUFCNN99O&trk_contact=CNI9CT1LSGFULNJ9JGL102JSGK&trk_sid=A2V6HK4RN2E6U3NKB0BLQ0BFOS&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=LEARN+MORE&utm_campaign=06282019FDAFoodInvestigation&utm_content=06282019FDAFoodInvestigation#taurineI will try to read through it when I have more time, but I have a bad feeling there's an agenda here to "link" grain-free diets with canine dilated cardiomypathy, and that will give vets and the AVMA the excuse to warn pet parents about the "dangers" of feeding grain-free. What they will ignore is that most of the cases they are looking at involve dogs fed kibble. The specialty pet food store that I used to go to emailed a summary, and I'm including some of it below. But keep in mind, just because a dry food is called "grain-free" or has meat "listed as the #1 ingredient" there are tricks that the pet food companies play. Kibble MUST have some sort of carbohydrate to make it into pellets of food, so if it's not grain, it's something else, e.g. peas, lentils, etc. And ingredients are listed by weight BEFORE processing when water is removed from all of the ingredients. Count the number of plant ingredients on the label and compare that with the number of animal ingredients - there's a very good chance the plant matter outnumbers (and outweighs) the animal proteins if it's kibble.
From my pet food store's newsletter (bolding is mine):
Here are some of the data highlights from the update:
- There have been a total of 524 reported cases of DCM between Jan 2014- April 2019
- There have been a total of 119 DCM related deaths between Jan 2014-April 2019
- The update provides a listing of the breeds affected by DCM, the largest group with 92 reported cases are Golden Retrievers
- Dry Kibble was the most common type of pet food with a 452 reported cases having fed kibble
- The update lists 16 brands of pet food frequently named
- Chicken was the most common animal protein fed in the reported cases
- 90% of the diets were "grain free" with some combination of Peas, Lentils and Potatoes[/li][/list]
There is a good deal of information provided in this update. But the data does not provide answers. This is a just the beginning. The most important take away from the FDA update is that there is still much work to be done before they can fully determine a casual link between DCM and “grain free” diets...
My opinion: this disease is likely a result of taurine deficiency. Below is what the update says about taurine:
-Taurine & Amino Acids
Nutritional research indicates that taurine is generally not considered an essential amino acid for dogs, because these animals can synthesize taurine from cysteine and methionine. Nearly all the grain-free products had methionine-cystine values above the minimum nutritional requirement of 0.65 percent for adult maintenance food for dogs published in the AAFCO Official Publication (OP).
The FDA is still gathering information to better understand if (and how) taurine metabolism (both absorption and excretion) may have a role in these reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy.
Just because a dog can synthesize it doesn't mean that it also shouldn't be included in their diet, or in it's natural form (meat). We know this with cats -- taurine deficiency can lead to heart problems and blindness, and that was discovered by accident, not by an actual study. So perhaps this issue in dogs is a sign that they need more taurine than originally believed, and/or they need it in it's natural form. If a dog has any kind of issue where it's unable to synthesize taurine on it's own, a food doesn't have enough methionine or cystine (or both) for some reason, or the dog is unable to absorb either one or both of those nutrients, that could potentially lead to a problem, particularly if the dog is fed the same food every day for a long time.
