The question if grain free dog food is linked to heart disease (DCM) in dogs has been in discussion for years. After initially appearing to be siding with grain-included pet food manufacturers, the FDA has basically refused to comment any further – leaving pet owners confused.
FDA’s lack of comment has not stopped researchers at BSM Partners, a “pet care research, consulting” firm and “Dr. Stacey Leach DVM, DACVIM, Chief of Cardiology and Associate Teaching Professor of Cardiology at the University of Missouri’s Veterinary Health Center“, they have just released an interesting survey. Note: BSM Partners clients include manufacturers of grain free pet foods.
The press release about the new DCM information is titled: “DCM Incidence in Dogs Remained Flat with No Correlation to 500% Growth of Grain-Free Diet Category Over Nearly a Decade.” Simply put, the researchers compared the annual percentages of cases of DCM to the sales increase percentages of grain free pet food. It would be assumed that if grain free pet food was the cause of an increase in DCM diagnosis’s in dogs, the percentages of cases would increase similarly with the rise in sales of grain free pet food.
This new information is not officially a research study, it was referred to it as “a retrospective survey that evaluated the annual incidence of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) diagnosed by veterinary cardiologists across the United States, along with previously unknown information regarding the growth of grain-free pet food store sales.”
Quotes from the survey: “The study aimed to analyze the annual incidence of DCM diagnosed by veterinary cardiologists over time, in addition to the age and breed distribution of DCM patients. Additionally, this study compiled brick-and-mortar grain-free diet sales data from 2011 to 2019, then overlayed it with annual incidence to analyze correlation.”
“Eighty-eight veterinary referral hospitals with board-certified or residency-trained veterinary cardiologists were contacted to represent different geographic areas throughout the United States. Of those contacted, 14 hospitals agreed to participate in the DCM survey. A DCM case was included based on the criteria of diagnosis by a board-certified veterinary cardiologist or supervised cardiology resident.“
This chart provided: “Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) annual average from all participating cardiologist services over the past 20 years.”
The DCM survey also documented sales data for grain free pet foods; “Growth in annual grain-free pet food sales, in the United States, were provided by the Nielsen Company for the years 2011–2019.”
The following chart provides “Grain-free pet food sales and annual average incidence rate of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) from 2011 to 2019.”
Under “Discussion” the DCM survey stated the information they collected did not find a rise in cases of DCM over 20 years, and they did not find that an increase of sales of grain free pet food resulted in a rise of DCM cases.
“This investigation did not observe a correlation between the rise in brick-and-mortar grain-free pet food sales and the average incidence rate of DCM, considering the cohort of institutions that participated and the breeds of their cardiology referral cases across the United States. Furthermore, the DCM incidence data received from participating referral hospitals did not support a concurrent overall increase in cases of DCM from 2000 to 2019.”
To read the full survey, Click Here.
Wishing you and your pet the best –
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
Become a member of our pet food consumer Association. Association for Truth in Pet Food is a a stakeholder organization representing the voice of pet food consumers at AAFCO and with FDA. Your membership helps representatives attend meetings and voice consumer concerns with regulatory authorities. Click Here to learn more.
What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
Is your dog or cat eating risk ingredients? Chinese imports? Petsumer Report tells the ‘rest of the story’ on over 5,000 cat foods, dog foods, and pet treats. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Click Here to preview Petsumer Report. www.PetsumerReport.com
Find Healthy Pet Foods in Your Area Click Here
The 2022 List
Susan’s List of trusted pet foods. Click Here to learn more.
T Allen
March 17, 2022 at 7:29 pm
Thanks Susan! Actually you probably have the resources in your records to see what’s been happening. Why the steep drop in cases 2001-2003? Were there any recalls, companies out of business, products pulled from the market (including flea/tick), etc? Something must have happened! Peaks in 2004,2006,2010? Were those years really wet with bad corn/ rice produced? The answer is out there, someone just needs to find it.
Christina Swanson
March 18, 2022 at 2:27 pm
Those peaks and troughs could also be related to the most popular breeds of those years or the prevalence of certain chemicals as there is no definite way to scientifically separate genetic, environmental human induced food cases of DCM (only a genetic higher likelihood).
These are just some of the many issues I had with that FDA “study”
Yvonne McGehee
March 18, 2022 at 4:40 pm
My veterinary cardiologist and other cardiologists have found that some DCM patients are recovering when taken off grain free diets. Also a paper came out the did find that B vitamins are lower in grain free foods, which might account for them inducing DCM because B vitamins are needed for the heart. https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2021/09/diet-associated-dcm-research-update/ Here is a quote: “In addition, results from two other studies are intriguing because they suggest that non-traditional diets might have early, more subtle negative effects on the heart. In one study of apparently healthy Golden Retrievers, the dogs that were eating non-traditional diets had larger hearts with weaker contraction compared to those eating traditional diets (Ontiveros et al, 2020). In the second study of apparently healthy dogs, four different breeds were included: Golden Retrievers, Doberman Pinschers, Whippets, and Miniature Schnauzers (Adin et al, 2021). The dogs in this study eating grain-free diets had higher levels of troponin than dogs eating grain-inclusive diets. Troponin is a protein measured in the blood that reflects heart muscle damage.”. If you find the actual study analyzing the different chamical compounds in grain free vs with grain diets, the differences are very interesting. Try the above references, I;m not able to look them up right now.
Concerned
March 23, 2022 at 3:16 pm
DCM and grain-free pet food facts
It appears that some veterinarians, especially in academia, and even some of my colleagues in the pet food industry conveniently ignore that even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has acknowledged that DCM is a scientifically complex, multi-faceted issue. This is sad, considering that practicing veterinarians often do not have time to research the topic themselves and actually look to these experts for legitimate and truthful information.
Additionally, FDA acknowledged that out of the more than 2,000 cases investigated, only 1,100 could be confirmed as DCM (note: NOT nutritional DCM, as there are many types). Meaning, veterinarians were inaccurate in their diagnosis for 45% of the cases submitted to FDA versus other potential cardiac issues, such as heart murmurs. Lastly, FDA even noted that pulse ingredients have been used in pet food for a long time, and again, there is no evidence to indicate that they are inherently dangerous to dogs.
Still no evidence to make a connection
Recently, a Tufts study funded by Nestlé Purina PetCare, “Investigation of diets associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs using foodomics analysis,” is being touted in the popular press as identifying a “link” between certain dry pet foods and DCM. Although it makes good headlines, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. I studied and developed foods for Hill’s Pet Nutrition with traditional nutrient and chemistry screen analysis, genomics, proteomics and metabolomics over a decade ago before it was “sexy,” and I didn’t make up silly terms like “foodomics”, so a study like this is frustrating and sad to see. If anything, it just adds to the confusion and contributes nothing to the science of nutrition.
https://www.petfoodindustry.com/blogs/10-debunking-pet-food-myths-and-misconceptions/post/10554-dcm-and-grain-free-pet-foods-3-strikes-and-youre-out
Nate
March 29, 2022 at 7:33 pm
One thing you need to realize Yvonne and and everyone for that matter, your cardiologist isn’t underscoring that those dogs were also treated with heart medication. Heart medication that is specifically designed and approved by FDA for the treatment of heart disease. I certainly hope that those drugs actually work.
That’s something nobody is talking about.