Another reason not to feed "meat"...

[Prin]

Especially to cats... I found this on the FDA website:

BSE and the safety of pets

With the exception of cats, no pets (companion animals) are known to be susceptible to the infectious agent that causes BSE in cattle. No evidence of BSE has ever been found in dogs, horses, birds, or reptiles.

However, cats are susceptible. Approximately 90 cats in the UK and several cats in other European countries have been diagnosed with the feline version of BSE, or FSE. Before it was recognized that they were susceptible to the BSE agent, cats were exposed to the infectious agent through commercial cat food or through meat scraps provided by butchers. The number of reported cases of FSE in the UK and Europe has been declining annually since 1994 after implementation of feed bans in those countries.

Currently in the U.S. , animal products that are prohibited from cattle feed are acceptable for use in pet food. Such products include meat and bone meal, for example. However, FDA believes that the safeguards it has put into place (i.e. ruminant feed rule) to prevent BSE in the U.S. have also protected cats. To date, no case of FSE has been found in the U.S. FDA continues to review these safeguards to be sure they are adequate, especially in light of the BSE case found in Washington State in December, 2003.

Material from the BSE positive cow in Washington State did not pose a risk to cats in the U.S. because none of it was released into distribution. All firms involved with the incident in Washington State were found to be in compliance with the BSE rules.

In addition, when the BSE positive cow was found in Canada in May 2003, the FDA stopped imports of all pet foods made from material derived from mammalian sources, and the pet food manufacturer recalled the food it had manufactured that was thought to contain material from the infected cow.

In an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in the Federal Register on July 14, 2004, the FDA announced that the agency intends to further strengthen the ruminant feed rule (or BSE feed regulation) by prohibiting the use of high-risk tissues, often referred to as specified risk material or SRM, in any animal feed including pet food.

CVM DOES NOT recommend one product over another or offer guidance on individual pet health issues that are normally provided by the pet’s veterinarian. Questions regarding your pets' health and/or the specific use of any veterinary drug, pet food, or other product should always be referred to your veterinarian.

I got it from here: http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfoods.htm
They have some links on there to other FDA food pages..

Always look for specific meats in your pet's food (e.g. chicken, salmon, lamb, turkey) and don't buy foods with vague terms like poultry, meat, animal, etc.

[coppperbelle]

Interesting article Prin, thanks. A while back I was speaking to someone about venison. In the states there is a lot of talk about CWD (chronic wasting disease). During hunting season there are articles in all the papers about precautions that must be taken when shooting a deer, elk etc... The person was wondering if this disease could pose a problem to pets if they were to eat any kind of venison infected with this disease. There are a number of different kibbles that now contain venison and I know of raw feeders who feed it also.

[Prin]

Did you ever find out the answer to that?

[coppperbelle]

I have not researched it thoroughly but what I have found says there is no evidence that CWD can be transferred to dog or people.
Our cottage is in the country and I have had heard all kinds of stories of how hunters who have killed a deer and eaten it have contracted this disease. True or not it is a huge concern in the states right now. I guess because it is fairly new no one is certain of it effects.

[.unknown.]

actually it can, but not through the air or saliva.... you have to ingest brain tissue of an infected animal.... (ew)

there have been several cases in europe where people have eaten meat that has been in contact with brain tissue of cows and contracted the disease. In humans it's called Creutzfeld-jakob disease.

These are really strange diseases, i read a little bit about them, and also watched a documentary about cannibalism where this one cannibalist tribe in africa were exhibiting the same symptoms of CJD, the found that they contracted it from eating the remains of their tribe. They also found that not all members of the tribe were getting it even though they ate the same meals. They discovered that some people actually are protected genetically from Prion diseases such as CJD. which lead the researchers to believe (after collecting dna samples from groups all over the world and comparing it to the dna of the tribe) that because of this genetic proctection, that there must have been a large amount of cannibalism in the past. Like we evolved to be protected from the disease.

The thing that's the scariest about prion diseases is that they are not bacteria or virii, they are protiens that destroy dna and cell tissue in the brain. That's why the people/animals that contract it act all funny and loopy, because their brains are being destroyed. But you can't cook it out of your food, or kill it....


scary

[.unknown.]

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cjd/detail_cjd.htm

oh poo.

note to self : thoroughly read sexisting posts prior to commenting.

hehe, A.D.D causes me to skim everything lightly, and also sometimes makes me look silly.

[Prin]

What do you mean? What's wrong with your post?

They're actually having a hard time really linking CJD with BSE... They can't see why there wouldn't be a link because the mechanisms of both diseases are so similar, but they just can't find it. Well, maybe my info is old (from last semester) and maybe they have found something since then.. But I'm not hopeful.

[Prin]

Hey, I found what I was trying to say in your link:

Although laboratory tests have shown a strong similarity between the prions causing BSE and v-CJD, there is no direct proof to support this theory.