Issued today, January 17, 2025, the FDA is requiring pet food manufacturers to perform a processing step (such as cooking) on raw animal ingredients in pet foods. For raw pet foods, the FDA is requiring manufacturers to include H5N1 (avian flu) as a “reasonably foreseeable hazard” in their Preventive Controls, which would require manufacturers to “implement a supply-chain-applied control” (such as testing raw ingredients).
FDA shared: “The FDA is tracking cases of H5N1 in domestic and wild cats in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington State that are associated with eating contaminated food products. Scientific information is evolving, but at this time it is known that H5N1 can be transmitted to cats and dogs when they eat products from infected poultry or cattle (e.g., unpasteurized milk, uncooked meat, or unpasteurized eggs) that have not undergone a processing step that is capable of inactivating the virus, such as pasteurizing, cooking or canning. Cats (domestic and large felids) in particular can experience severe illness or death from infection with H5N1. Dogs can also contract H5N1, although they usually exhibit mild clinical signs and low mortality compared to cats. At present, H5N1 has not been detected in dogs in the United States, but there have been fatal cases in other countries.“
Concerned pet owners can (in a way) follow FDA’s advice with their pet’s food. If you feed your pet’s raw and are worried, you have the option of cooking it prior to feeding it to your pet. Please ask your pet food manufacturer first if cooking their raw pet food is appropriate. With raw milk products, only raw cow milk has been linked to Avian Flu. To current day, raw goat milk has not.
Personal opinion: Prevention has been reported to be the focus of FDA since the enactment of the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011. While today’s step from FDA is a preventive action, the agency waited (and waited) to require pet food manufacturers to take prevention steps. USDA as well. Both agencies hold a certain amount of responsibility that the current situation of Avian Flu in the US has gotten to the point it has. The FDA’s and USDA’s ‘wait and see’ lack of action for years is in part why today’s action is – as my Dad used to say – ‘a day late and a dollar short’. Today’s action by FDA should have happened years ago (but at least they took action now). Proactive regulators and manufacturers is exactly what we need.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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