Sustainable Pet Food Association SPFA

Very Positive Latest Research

Latest PhD study shows positive health outcomes over a year with dogs fed a plant-based diet

Linde A, Lahiff M, Krantz A et al. (2023). Domestic dogs maintain positive clinical, nutritional, and haematological health outcomes when fed a commercial plant-based diet for a year. 21 Feb. 2023.  https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.18.525405v1
(Please note that this paper is so recent though that it has NOT yet been peer reviewed as we had with all of the papers last year in this Blog post)

Read the full research article here as a PDF
PhD study showing positive health outcomes over a year with dogs fed a plant-based diet

Prospective clinical study of 15 dogs

Linde et al. (2023)  studied 15 dogs fed 100% plant-based diets (V-Dog ‘Kind Kibble’) for one year after previously being fed meat-based diets. They evaluated clinical, haematological (blood cells etc.), and nutritional parameters at 0, 6, and 12 months, including complete blood count (CBC), blood chemistry, cardiac biomarkers, plasma amino acids, and serum vitamin concentrations.

 

  • All dogs maintained their health status.
  • Three who had been overweight or obese lost weight.
  • Blood results confirmed the diet provided all essential amino acids, and for several nutrients blood levels increased.
  • In some cases previous deficiencies reversed, without supplement use.

 

What is the One Health Paradigm?

One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognising the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.

One Health Paradigm

They are mentioned in the PhD paper by the authors –

“Clinical Relevance: This study is the most comprehensive and longest known canine plant-based nutrition investigation to date. It provides clinically important evidence-based nutrition data and new knowledge on outcomes in clinically healthy dogs who maintain health without consumption of animal-derived ingredients.

Also, it is of major relevance to One Health paradigms since ingredients produced independent of industrial food animal production are both more sustainable and help to circumvent ethical dilemmas for maintenance of health in domestic dogs.”

Link to One Health
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