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Salmonella
Salmonella, E. coli, worms. These are just some of the things that people are concerned about when they feed raw meat to their animals. But should they be?
I think not. Sure there is a possibility that there are low levels of some of these and other bacteria in a fresh, natural product (Salmonella is a very natural entity, after all!) but can they cause a problem? This is the real question we should ask.
In my experience I have never seen an animal (dog or cat) that has had this type of bacterial infection that is attributable to the fresh raw meat or raw meaty bones it has been given. Indeed in my years in practice I only ever saw dogs with gastroenteritis due who were eating processed food.
I think that if you feed an animal a processed, essentially sterilised, food then the gut can never develop healthy immunity to bugs that are naturally in the environment. Dogs eating good quality fresh meats will be able to gradually develop healthier gut immunity in my opinion. This will then stand them in better stead when they do come across the odd bacterium trying to run amok.
We have to put these poor bacteria in some kind of context. We are worrying about our pets eating the odd bug in quality meat when we then take them to the park where all sorts of animals have been doing unspeakable things, then come home and…lick their feet! I think that until we put our dogs in shoes and our cats in booties, then we should not worry too much about our animals getting Salmonella etc. from their fresh natural raw food.
Bacteria are everywhere, however hard you try. I remember an experiment we did at college in the bacteriology lab. One of a pair of students would place their hand on an agar plate (normally used to grow bacteria as they feed the bugs just like rotting food) which was then incubated for 24 hours. Interestingly, though, the other person washed their hands really carefully and put an identical plate in with the ‘dirty hand’ plate.
The result? You guessed it - both came out looking equally covered in colonies of bacteria. It was a salutary lesson for us all - bugs are everywhere. You have to go a long way to get rid of them and keep them away. Surely it is better to learn to live with them by stimulating immunity and maintaining good health. Better than the overuse of antibiotics that is still common in the medical professions methinks.
As for worms, we’re told to worm our dogs even if they are on a processed food every 3-6 months. I think this is a good practice for the sake of public health - children getting toxoplasmosis or other, less harmful infestations. Lets carry on this safe and essentially benign practice.
Pasteur, the founder of modern bacteriology, on his deathbed was reported to have said ‘It is the soil, not the seed’ referring to the fact that it is not bacteria that cause disease, it is unhealthy people and animals allowing the bacteria to come in and thrive in the fertile ground of their unhealthy body’s. Let’s take a leaf out of the great man’s book and keep our dogs healthy by feeding raw meat and raw meaty bones.
