In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration, acting on input from a group of veterinary researchers, began investigating whether there was a sudden increase in potentially fatal heart disease in dogs, due to the increased popularity of the foods grain free dogs, resulting in potentially fatal heart disease in dogs.
Dog food is displayed at a pet store in Westfield, Ind., Tuesday, July 19, 2022. In 2018, the FDA began investigating whether the growing popularity was leading to a sudden increase in potentially fatal heart disease on grain free dog foods. in dogs. Four years later, the FDA has not reached a conclusion, but the publicity surrounding the issue has reduced the promising market for grain-free dog foods.
Four years later, the FDA has not found a firm link between diet and dilated cardiomyopathy. He also did not rule out such a link, and research is underway. However, the publicity surrounding this issue has reduced the market for grain-free dog foods.
In addition, a tangled web of funding and industry interests appears to have influenced the initiation, data collection, and course of the FDA study, according to internal FDA records.
A six-month investigation by 100Reporters found that veterinarians who prompted the FDA to evaluate a diet have financial and other ties to major sellers of grain-containing pet foods. Additionally, agency records show that for the initial study, some veterinarians were instructed to only submit dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) cases involving “exotic” or “exotic” grain-free pet foods. Suppliers of ingredients used in grain-free dog foods also pressured the FDA to protect their market.
Consequently, the conversation around DCM and grain-free food is deeply divided, with each side claiming that the other is prioritizing industry relations over scientific integrity and pet life.
“It became such an emotional issue,” said Dana Brooks, CEO of the Pet Food Institute, whose members produce the majority of pet foods in the US. “We’re scrambling to even try to determine what’s going on.”
Cause for concern
Grain-free pet diets became popular in the early 2000s, relying heavily on pulses – seeds from legume plants including peas, beans and lentils. Read also : GUEST VIEWS: Food Bank continues to improve. By 2019, grain-free kibble accounted for 43 percent of all dry pet foods sold.
Until 2017, the FDA saw one to three DCM reports each year. But between January 1 and July 10, 2018, he received 25 cases. Seven reports came from one source, said animal nutritionist Lisa Freeman of Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, an FDA spokeswoman said. FDA records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act indicate, however, that those reports may not have been fully representative of cases seen at the Tufts clinic.
In a June 2018 email to FDA veterinary officer Jennifer Jones, Freeman attached a document instructing veterinarians to report cases to the FDA, “If a patient is eating any diet other than those made by well-known companies or if they eat store , exotic. ingredient, or a grain-free diet (GEF).
When asked if this could be seen as cherry-picking details that would shape the investigation, Freeman said through Tufts media relations: “The protocol in that email was developed for veterinary cardiologists and was intended to assist them in the early stages of the investigation on possible combinations. between diet and dilated cardiomyopathy.”
“I shared the protocol with the FDA to inform them of the clinical recommendations we had for patients at that time,” Freeman wrote, noting that they are “continuing to study” on any diet with ingredients linked to DCM “regardless of manufacturer.”
In an email, an FDA spokesperson wrote, “The FDA has never requested that DCM cases reported to the agency be limited to certain types of diet. We welcome all reports from the DCM that are suspected to be linked to food, regardless of the type of diet.”
According to PubMed.gov, Freeman has received funding from major grain-containing food vendors, including Nestle Purina Petcare, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, and Mars Petcare, since 2002. Her recent conflict of interest declarations state: “In the 3 last ones Dr. has received research funding. Freeman has sponsored lectures for, and/or provided professional services to, Aratana Therapeutics, Elanco, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Nestlé Purina PetCare, P&G Pet Care (now Mars), and Royal Canin. “
Industry funding is common in animal nutrition science. Freeman said she stands behind her research and has “transparently disclosed the funding sources of the work I do on this subject.”
Two veterinary cardiologists — Darcy Adin of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and Joshua Stern of the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine — also collaborated with the FDA.
Emails from a public records request show that in April 2018, Jones spoke with Freeman, Stern and Adin about grain-free dog foods and DCM and requested spreadsheets of their clinical case data.
Adin has been involved in studies funded by Purina since 2018 and, since 2017, by the Morris Animal Foundation, an animal health charity created by Hill’s founder and chaired by a Hill employee.
University of Florida public relations said that neither Adin nor the university received direct financial support from the companies for these studies.
Stern has written studies funded by the Morris Animal Foundation since 2011, and currently receives funding from the foundation.
“I completely understand the concern about a conflict of interest when it comes to people being funded by the pet food industry,” Stern said. “It’s hard to find a veterinary nutritionist who hasn’t done research for pet food companies.”
Purina, Hill’s and Mars did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In July 2018, the FDA announced its investigation, noting that many of the 25 dogs diagnosed lacked a genetic predisposition to DCM. The common thread seemed to be a grain-free diet, he said.
A year later, the FDA took the unusual step of designating 16 dog foods, almost all grain-free, that appeared frequently in their DCM case reports. “We’ve never seen anything like this before without certainty about the cause,” Brooks said.
Joseph Bartges, professor of animal nutrition at the University of Georgia, was not surprised to notice early on the grain-free food mentioned by the FDA. “When you look at what you want to see, you only see what you want,” Bartges said. By July 2020, DCM reports numbered 1,100 — which led to the FDA encouraging people to report the disease,” Brooks said.
Influential industry
In turn, ingredient suppliers of grain-free foods marshaled forces to defend their market share.
In its 2019 annual report, USA Dry Pea & The Lentil Council said it “persuaded the FDA to clarify their language about their concerns and minimize the damage to the industry. Read also : Study shows that thin influencers do not motivate healthy food choices between tweens.”
In a 2019 letter to FDA officials, Senator Jon Tester of Montana — a key growing region for pulses — complained that the agency’s “baseless warning” had hurt pulse farmers. The following year, seven Senators signed another letter to the FDA showing “bias about the cause of this disease”.
The FDA has consistently stated that several factors are associated with DCM. Shortly after that letter, Steven Solomon, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), emphasized this point, describing DCM as a “scientifically complex multifaceted issue,” adding that ” we . . . this is not currently viewed as a regulatory issue.”
An FDA spokesperson wrote that, while he met with stakeholders, “Ultimately, all FDA decisions and work are guided by science, data, and our public health mission.”
Regardless of the final results of the investigation, grain-free dry dog food sales have declined since June 2018 and are down $60 million from 2021 to 2022. Meanwhile, grain-inclusive sales increased in 2019 and raised $700 million from 2020 to 2021.
Getting an answer about DCM will be difficult because of the complexity of the scientific and industry impact, said Marion Nestle, author of Pet Food Politics. “They’re all trying to protect their market share.”
This article is an abridged version of an investigation conducted by 100Reporters, a non-profit investigative news organization, with financial support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism and legal guidance from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
