A new global survey of more than 16,000 households has revealed that food-borne pathogens are ‘rarely transmitted to humans through raw pet food’.
Published in the Veterinary Record journal, the survey by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Helsinki in Finland looked at perceptions of food-transmitted pathogens among pet owners who feed their animal’s raw food.
A total of 16,475 households from 81 countries responded to the internet survey, and only 0.4% reported contamination from pet food.
Of those, 39 households reported having been contaminated by pet food and could name the pathogen (salmonella and campylobacter), while 24 households had contamination from pet food but could not name the pathogen causing symptoms.
In the study, 7.2% of households prepared raw pet food in a different place from human food whereas 68.4% used the same place and same utensils as for human food.
The survey (in English, Finnish, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese) ran from July 2017 to February 2018, and targeted dog and cat owners who fed raw pet food.
