RESUMEN
The nutritional health of dogs and cats is important to pet owners around the world. Nutrition is inextricably linked to the health of the gastrointestinal system and vice versa. Gastrointestinal signs, such as vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, or weight loss, are one of the most common reasons that dog and cat owners make non-routine appointments with veterinarians. Those patients are evaluated systematically to identify and/or rule out the causes of the symptoms. Some causes of chronic diarrhea are within the gastrointestinal tract while others are secondary to pathogenic factors outside the digestive system. Some useful biomarkers of chronic intestinal disease (enteropathy) exist in serum and feces. After determination that the clinical signs are due to primary gastrointestinal disease and that there is no parasitism, specific diets are used for at least two weeks. There are several types of diets for pets with chronic enteropathies. There are limited ingredient diets and hydrolyzed protein diets with reduced levels of allergens. There are also highly digestible and fiber-enhanced diets. Some diets contain probiotics and/or prebiotics. If symptoms do not improve and the patient is stable, a diet from a different class may be tried. For chronic enteropathies, the prognosis is generally good for symptom resolution or at least improvement. However, if interventions with novel diets do not ameliorate the symptoms of chronic enteropathy, then antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, or immunosuppressant therapy or further, more invasive diagnostics such as taking an intestinal biopsy, may be indicated. Pancreatitis is a common gastrointestinal disease in dogs and cats and patients may present with mild to severe disease. Many patients with mild to moderate disease can be successfully treated with early supportive care, including feeding a low-fat diet. A novel pharmaceutical, fuzapladib (Panoquell-CA1) looks very promising for treating more severe forms of acute pancreatitis in dogs. Maintenance on a low-fat diet may prevent pancreatitis in at-risk dogs. Future advances in medicine will allow pet owners and veterinarians to use dietary management to maximize the health of their dogs and cats.
Asunto(s)
Enfermedades de los Gatos , Enfermedades de los Perros , Enfermedades Gastrointestinales , Enfermedades Inflamatorias del Intestino , Pancreatitis , Gatos , Perros , Humanos , Animales , Enfermedades de los Gatos/diagnóstico , Enfermedades de los Gatos/terapia , Enfermedad Aguda , Enfermedades de los Perros/diagnóstico , Enfermedades de los Perros/terapia , Dieta , Enfermedades Gastrointestinales/diagnóstico , Enfermedades Gastrointestinales/terapia , Enfermedades Gastrointestinales/veterinaria , Diarrea/diagnóstico , Diarrea/terapia , Diarrea/veterinariaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Although the European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF) stated that labels must be accurate and provide detailed information on the ingredients, mislabeling of pet food has been documented by several authors. This phenomenon is of particular concern when related to products used as elimination diets for the diagnosis of adverse food reaction (AFR) in dogs and cats because the presence of undeclared ingredients may negatively interfere with the trial and prevent the veterinarian from making an appropriate diagnosis. The aim of this study was to shed light upon the problem of contamination and mislabeling in both dry and wet novel protein diets (NPDs) and hydrolyzed protein diets (HPDs) using a microarray-based commercial kit which tests for the presence of 19 animal species. RESULTS: Of the 40 analyzed products (9 dry NPDs, 22 wet NPDs, 6 dry HPDs and 3 wet HPDs), ten presented a content that correctly matched the label, while five did not contain the declared animal species, twenty-three revealed the presence of undeclared animal species, and two had a vague label that did not allow the evaluation of its accuracy. The most frequently contaminants identified in both dry and wet pet foods were pork, chicken and turkey. The presence of undeclared animal species was higher in dry than wet pet foods; furthermore, a lower number of contaminating animal species was identified in HPDs than NPDs (4 vs 10), and a lower number of contaminated HPDs (6 out of 9, 67%) than contaminated NPDs was detected (24 out of 31, 77%). Thirteen out of 14 brands tested presented at least one mislabeled product. CONCLUSIONS: Mislabeling seems to be a widespread issue in pet foods used as elimination diets. Contamination can occur in all types of products used for the purpose, although dry NPDs are the main issue. Due to the high risk of contamination, particular attention should be given to both the selection of raw material suppliers and the production process.