More than a dozen pet food brands have now been linked to serious cases of heart diseases in dogs. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published its findings this week, revealing that it has identified a number of popular brands of dog food with an abnormally high number of reported cases of heart diseases.
The FDA is reportedly still looking into more than 500 reports of dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM, in dogs who had consumes different brands of dog food.
The agency's investigation into the cases is still ongoing, but the agency has named several brands that are linked to a significant amount of the reported cases. DCM usually leads to congestive heart failures in dogs.
According to the director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, Steven Solomon, the agency has yet to identify the particular component that links the disease to the different brands of dog food.
However, Solomon warned pet owners to consult with their veterinarians in order to prevent their pets from getting the life-threatening disease.
The FDA initially issued a warning back in July of last year of a potential DCM link with popular dog food brands. However, the agency did not specifically name the pet food labels.
The agency did announce that pet food brands that were labeled "grain-free" and those with peas and other legume seeds had posed the most risk.
The FDA's updated report now includes the names of 16 brands of dog food with the most number of reported cases. Popular dog food brand Acana topped the list with over 67 reported cases. Dog food brand, Zignature, followed in a close second with 64 reported cases.
Other dog food brands that were named in the report included, Taste of the Wild, 4Health, Earthborn Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Nature's Domain, Fromm, Merrick, Californian Natural, Natural Balance, Orijen, Nature's Variety, NurtiSource, Nutro, and Rachael Ray Nutrish.
Some of the companies were named in the report immediately fired back. Zignature, which had 64 reported cases, mentioned on its website that its own third-party internal studies have found no link between its Zignature products to DCM. Arcana and Orijen have also publicly objected to the FDA decision in listing their brands on the report.
Both companies have announced that they are hiring third-party firms to look into the cause of DCM and to determine whether or not their products directly or indirectly cause it in dogs.
Champion Petfoods, the company that owns both Arcana and Orijen brands, mentioned in a statement that the FDA's report is misleading given that they had no scientific evidence to back up their claims. The report apparently only used the reported cases to link the brands to the disease, which Champion Petfoods thinks will only serve to confuse consumers.
