Raw dog food contains drug resistant bacteria, study finds
The authors were because of present their just work at the now canceled 2020 European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).
Their work suggests that raw frozen dog food contains bacteria that can handle resisting mainstream antibiotics.
This poses a risk of the transmission of these antibiotic resistant bacteria from dogs to humans, constituting an international public health risk, say the authors of the analysis.
Antibiotic resistance
In line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “[a]ntibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time.”
The CDC highlight that 35,000 people die after developing an antibiotic resistant infection every year in the usa.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describe antibiotic resistance as “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.”
The WHO note that although bacteria can naturally become resistant to antibiotics as time passes, the misuse of antibiotics by humans is speeding the procedure up. This effect is going on either from the way we take antibiotics or from just how we use them in animal populations.
According to 2018 research in the journal Molecules, antibacterial resistance in animals has mostly developed due to people’s increasing demand for meat and dairy and the intensive farming that requires.
To meet up this demand, intensive agricultural practices have grown significantly. As a result of conditions under which farmers rear animals in intensive agriculture, the widespread make use of antibiotics is necessary to maintain the fitness of livestock.
This practice escalates the likelihood of bacteria developing antibiotic resistance, that may spread to humans in several ways.
Frozen dog food
In the research that the ECCMID was because of hear, the authors focused on another facet of antibiotic resistance in animals: The opportunity that raw frozen dog food may harbor antibiotic resistant bacteria.
According to a 2019 study in the Journal of Small Animal Practice, raw food diets for pets have become in popularity recently. This is primarily due to what persons perceive as medical benefits associated with animals consuming a more ‘natural’ diet and suspicion at processed pet foods. The study notes that there surely is little evidence to aid the health benefits associated with such a diet that people often suggest.
In contrast, the same study notes that there is growing evidence that raw food pet diets could be dangerous for both animals and humans.
The authors concentrate on the chance that raw frozen dog food may pose to antibacterial resistance.
The authors took 46 samples of dog food - 22 wet, 15 dry, and nine raw frozen - from 24 international brands. They then cultured these samples and tested them with a variety of antibiotics.
Bacteria resistance to key antibiotics
Several types of Enterococci bacteria appeared in 41% (19 out of 46) of the entire samples.
The scientists found these bacteria in 53% (8 out of 15) of the dry dog food and 9% (2 out of 22) of the wet dog food. However, they found them in every nine samples of the raw frozen dog food.
When the authors viewed the raw frozen samples in greater detail, they found that each of them carried bacteria that are resistant to numerous antibiotics, including standard antibiotics that healthcare professionals prescribe regularly. On the other hand, drug resistant bacteria contaminated few samples of the wet or dry dog food.
For the authors of the analysis, “[t]he close contact of pets with humans and the commercialization of the studied brands in various EU countries pose an international public health risk if transmission of such strains occurs between dogs and humans.”
“There is strong past and recent evidence that dogs and humans share common multidrug resistant strains of Enterococci faecium, and, thus, the potential for these strains to be transmitted to humans from dogs.”
According to Dr. Ana Raquel Freitas from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Portugal, and an writer of the study, “These raw frozen foods are said to be consumed after being thawed and may at least be cooked, to kill these drug resistant and other bacteria.”
“Although these foods seem to be to be regulated, regarding their microbiological safety by EU authorities, risk assessment of biological hazards also needs to include antibiotic resistant bacteria and/or genes besides only establishing the occurrence of bacterial pathogens, such as for example salmonella.”
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
