30 Jun 2021
Company has added CardioCare to its Pro Plan Veterinary Diets range, featuring a nutrient blend with potential to delay progression of preclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
A diet containing a blend of nutrients to support heart function in dogs has been launched by Purina.
CardioCare, the latest scientifically formulated diet to join the Pro Plan Veterinary Diets range, has been 10 years in development and is supported by a 2019 clinical study1 revealing it has the potential to delay progression of preclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) in dogs.
The company says it could also prove a useful tool to help support dogs with MMVD or chronic cardiac insufficiency of another cause.
CardioCare is the result of research at the Purina Technology Center in the US to explore the role nutrients can play in ailing hearts.
A series of metabolomics studies identified the metabolic changes that occur in MMVD before a “cardiac nutritional blend” was designed to address the changes.
Carnitine precursors, antioxidants and medium-chain triglycerides all feature in the cardiac nutritional blend, with a study in 20191 showing the blend as the potential to delay disease progression in dogs with preclinical MMVD.
Across the six-month study period, dogs with preclinical MMVD fed the blend showed a reduction in left atrial size, while a group fed a control diet showed an increase.
None of the dogs fed the blend progressed from stage B1 to B2 MMVD, while 37% fed the control diet did show progression2.
Purina said that while research so far focused on MMVD, nutrients in CardioCare are recognised to be beneficial for cardiac stress and the diet could be considered as part of the management plan for dogs with cardiac insufficiency.
Libby Sheridan, Purina scientific affairs manager for the UK and Ireland, said: “Metabolomics research has the scope to drive huge advances in managing a range of conditions.
“We’re proud to be at the forefront of this exciting field and bring the benefits of our findings to vets in practice. CardioCare opens up a new avenue of support for patients with cardiac insufficiency and vets can use this diet as a tool to complement medical treatment.”
The diet is available from today (30 June) with full details available by emailing [email protected]
1. Li Q, Heaney A, Langenfeld-McCoy N, Boler BV and Laflamme DP (2019). Dietary intervention reduces left atrial enlargement in dogs with early preclinical myxomatous mitral valve disease: a blinded randomized controlled study in 36 dogs, BMC Veterinary Research 15(1): 425.
2. Li Q, Freeman LM, Rush JE, Huggins GS, Kennedy AD, Labuda JA, Laflamme DP and Hannah SS (2015). Veterinary medicine and multi-omics research for future nutrition targets: metabolomics and transcriptomics of the common degenerative mitral valve disease in dogs, OMICS 19(8): 461-470.
