17 Aug 2021
The Tufts University study for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) examined traditional dog food versus food that the FDA had previously associated with canine dilated cardiomyopathy, some of which are labelled “grain free”.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
Image © chalabala / Fotolia
COMPOUNDS in some dog foods have been linked to canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) – a progressive and “largely irreversible” heart disease – in a US study.
The Tufts University study for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) examined traditional dog food versus food that the FDA had previously associated with DCM, some of which are labelled “grain free”.
These foods usually include ingredients such as potatoes, pulses or peas that are used as an alternative to grain, but the FDA is concerned these ingredients may be linked to the largely fatal heart condition.
The study looked at a total of 830 biochemical compounds, which were measured and compared in two separate diet groups. The first group consisted of diets clinically associated with DCM in dogs, while the comparison group had diets not associated clinically with DCM in dogs.
The study used a metabolomics approach to foods – dubbed “foodomics” – to identify molecular and potential ingredient sources that differentiate between two diet groups reported to alter DCM risk in pet dogs.
Researchers found the biochemical compounds that differed by diet group included amino acid-related compounds, carnitine-related molecules, the set of methylated compounds referred to as betaines, and a variety of unnamed xenobiotics and plant compounds – and hypothesise that one or more of these compounds may contribute to DCM in dogs.
Researchers dubbed the diets that contained the suspected ingredients and had been previously linked with the condition by the FDA as “3P/FDA”.
The paper reads: “The current study identified a substantial number of biochemical differences in the 3P/FDA diets, which have been associated with DCM in pet dogs, compared to non-3P/FDA diets.
“Most (81.9%) biochemical compounds that differed between diet groups were higher in 3P/FDA diets compared to non-3P/FDA diets, and four distinguishing ingredients – peas, lentils, chicken/turkey and rice – which also differed across the diet groups, appear to contribute to these differences.
“Peas and, to a lesser degree, lentils appear to be a possible primary source for the biochemical compounds found to be significantly higher in 3P/FDA diets.
“While we cannot establish with certainty if any of these compounds and ingredients are causal for disease, the findings support peas as a leading possible ingredient associated with diet-associated DCM in dogs.
“In general, diets containing peas were commonly associated with compounds being higher in the 3P/FDA diets, rather than with compounds that were lower or deficient in these diets.
“One possible hypothesis regarding how the 3P/FDA diets may contribute to DCM posits that these diets could be insufficient in key nutrients that lead to disease. With respect to nutrient insufficiency, several compounds that are relevant to cardiac metabolism, including B vitamins and related compounds, were lower in 3P/FDA diets.”
