The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has analyzed the risk to dogs and cats from eating contaminated raw pet food and the impact on the people who feed them such products. Raw pet food has become increasingly popular in recent years. Such items are made from Category 3 Animal-By-Products (ABP) that have been passed fit for human consumption in a slaughterhouse but are surplus to requirements.
They do not undergo cooking or heat treatment so that the end product can be contaminated with pathogens. The majority are sold frozen and typically have a best-before date of over one year. The assessment considers the risk of dogs and cats acquiring Salmonella, beta-glucuronidase-positive E.
coli, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), Campylobacter, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection from contaminated products. It also covers the risk of infection to animal owners by handling these products at home or via transmission from an infected pet.
There is uncertainty around the prevalence and symptoms of clinical infection in companion animals and how raw pet food products are handled, stored, and prepared in the home. The number of pet owners in vulnerable categories using raw pet food is also unclear. A recent survey by the FSA to test raw dog and cat food products on retail sale in the UK from March 2023 to February 2024 detected a high prevalence of these pathogens.
Full findings have yet to be published, but results from 306 out of 380 samples show that 20 percen.
