Innovations in Canine and Feline Nutrition: Technologies for Food and Nutrition Assessment

Abstract

Pet owners have increasing concerns about the nutrition of their pets, and they desire foods and treats that are safe, traceable, and of high nutritive value. To meet these high expectations, detailed chemical composition characterization of ingredients well beyond that provided by proximate analysis will be required, as will information about host physiology and metabolism. Use of faster and more precise analytical methodology and novel technologies that have the potential to improve pet food safety and quality will be implemented. In vitro and in vivo assays will continue to be used as screening tools to evaluate nutrient quality and adequacy in novel ingredients prior to their use in animal diets. The use of molecular and high-throughput technologies allows implementation of noninvasive studies in dogs and cats to investigate the impact of dietary interventions by using systems biology approaches. These approaches may further improve the health and longevity of pets.

A newin vitromethod to evaluate digestibility of commercial diets for dogs

“…The digestibility of dog foods has been evaluated in vivo using dogs housed in metabolic cages as experimental animals (Brambillasca et al 2010;Dobenecker et al 2010) or, in some cases, using fistulated dogs (Yamka et al 2003a,b;Barry et al 2009;Faber et al 2010;Hendriks et al 2013). A comprehensive review of technologies that may be used to assess the digestibility of foods for dogs and cats has recently been published by de Godoy et al (2016). Methods based on the use of digestibility markers (inert and indigestible dietary components), included at low concentrations in the diet, are widely used [for example, chromic oxide (Guevara et al 2008;Barry et al 2009), yttrium oxide (Vhile et al 2007) and celite (Scott & Boldaji 1997)].…”

Quality assurance and control of methods to examine visually recognisable substances in feed and food : In cooperation with International Association for Feedingstuff Analysis, Section Feedingstuff Microscopy

“…Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS), Van Soest analyses, and Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy, although these systems do not aim at the same set of parameters (Bovera et al, 2003;Godoy et al, 2016).…”

Changes in the Fecal Metabolome Are Associated with Feeding Fiber Not Health Status in Cats with Chronic Kidney Disease

“…Crude fiber, which represents the type of dietary fiber that remains as a residue after food receives a standardized laboratory treatment with dilute acid and alkali, was similar for the two foods. (Fiber analysis methods are reviewed by deGoy et al [44].) Such treatment dissolves all soluble fibers and some insoluble fibers.…”