01/10/2025
So sad to see there are now multiple cat deaths linked to raw food diets contaminated with H5N1 avian influenza.
From Dr. Scott Weese of of the Ontario Veterinary College’s Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses:
"High pressure pasteurization (HPP) is a process used to reduce pathogen burdens in raw food. It should markedly reduce (or perhaps sometimes even eliminate) bacteria like Salmonella and viruses like influenza. However, as we repeatedly see in situations like this, contamination can still occur.
These repeated recalls raise a number of issues. One is the standard concern about contamination of these diets with bacteria like Salmonella, that cause disease in dogs and cats, and sometimes owners who have contact with the diets or animals. More recently, we now also have important concerns about H5N1 avian influenza virus contamination of raw meat diets for pets, as multiple cat deaths have been linked to consumption of such raw diets (including diets that were high pressure-pasteurized).
I recommend not feeding raw diets to pets. We cook food for people to kill things that can hurt us, and the same concept applies to pet food. If someone insists on feeding a raw diet, I recommend a high pressure-pasteurized diet to help reduce the risks, but this certainly does not eliminate the risks. Pet owners need to be aware that (despite all the claims on various companies’ websites) there are still infectious disease risks to pets and people with these diets, and safe food handling practices in the home are critical to reduce the risks to people in particular.
Since there’s no health benefit from raw diets beyond equivalent cooked diets, it’s best to go with a cooked diet. Post-cooking cross-contamination of food can also still occur, so while they still aren’t zero risk, they are much lower risk than raw diets."
read more here at Dr. Weese's blog:
https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/
