AAVN September E-Newsletter

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AAVN Newsletter September 2020

From the President's Desk

Dear Colleagues,

This year has been one of unprecedented change, in all aspects of our lives. While these adjustments can feel uncomfortable, they have also provided us with opportunities to grow.

At the AAVN, we hosted our first virtual Symposium in June and I could not have predicted the success of this online event! We are now using the feedback that we collected from attendees to plan our CE for the upcoming year. At your suggestion, we are working to develop webinars for our members, student members and for general practitioners (more details coming soon). Our Education Committee is also looking at ways that the virtual program enhanced our Symposium and could be adapted to suit an in-person meeting, if we are able to gather together in 2021.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you to renew your membership! You should have received an email notice with a link to confirm your account on our new website. If you didn’t receive that email/ have questions, please contact Jen at aavnexecutive@gmail.com

Finally, I recognize that many of you are navigating the challenges of “back to school” and all of the uncertainties that go with it. I hope that it goes well for you and for your families.

Martha G. Cline, DVM, DACVN

AAVN Executive Board – President (2017 – 2021)

"The Rap on Recalls in Pet Food"

Caitlin Holly

University of Florida

1st place, AAVN 2020 Student Blog Contest

Few things hold greater concern for the discerning consumer than recalls, and as such, dozens of websites offer notifications for new recalls and provide a recall history for various dog food brands. Unfortunately, like most aspects of pet nutrition, there are a myriad of misconceptions surrounding the topic of recalls and the important considerations that should be made when evaluating the recall history of a manufacturer.

Consideration One: Why did the recall happen? (Voluntary vs Involuntary)

Per the FDA, pet food recalls occur for three reasons. "Recalls may be conducted by a firm's own initiative, by FDA request, or by FDA order under statutory authority." This is an important consideration because while a firm-initiated recall often represents successful post-production quality-control measures, an FDA ordered recall may represent a failure of quality control procedures. A company that is not testing their own products will not have firm-initiated recalls, because they aren't doing the testing that would identify the issue in the first place! In such instances, a clean recall record may not indicate top-notch production at all, but rather inadequately monitored production. Post-production quality control measures may include: testing the batch and production equipment for harmful bacteria such as Salmonella or E. coli, measuring levels of potentially harmful nutrients like vitamin D or calcium, examining equipment regularly for faults or missing parts that may have contaminated a completed batch with foreign material, and saving samples of raw ingredients and finished batches for a holding period in case any future consumer reported issues need investigated.

Additionally, not all recalls are for concerns that present an immediate danger to consumers (or their pets). Recalls are sometimes announced for issues such as minor errors in labeling (technically a 'withdrawal'), minor (safe) deviations in ingredients or nutrient levels, or potential but unconfirmed contamination with bacteria. Such "preventative" recalls are a form of quality control to stop issues before any illness or injury occur.

Consideration Two: How did the company react to the recall?

Once an issue is identified, the way a manufacturer responds should be evaluated. A responsible manufacturer will identify the 'ground zero' of the event and institute changes to their protocol to prevent future incidents. If a manufacturer disputes the concern, refuses to pull products back until mandated to do so, fails to investigate the issue, and makes no changes to their quality control protocol following the event, that may be highly concerning, particularly if they have a track record of violations.

Consideration Three: The role of market share on recall prevalence and frequency.

As a general rule, the more consumers a company caters to, the increased statistical probability of an issue with the product actually being noticed. As a hypothetical scenario, two pet foods make it to the shelf with an identical, notable concern, such as a toxic contaminant. 1 of every 10 of the dogs that consume this diet will experience clinical signs of illness. If Diet A sold 1000 bags and Diet B sold 100 bags, there will be 100 affected dogs on Diet A and only 10 affected dogs on Diet B. The chances of Diet A being linked to illness is then far greater than for Diet B, despite that both diets experienced the same contamination event. When a smaller company has fewer, or even no, recalls, it doesn't necessarily reflect greater quality control on their part. It may simply mean that any issues they have had have gone unnoticed. On the other hand, larger companies are under a lens of scrutiny given the mass market share of their foods, increasing the likelihood that any issues will be promptly identified by the public if missed by QC protocol.

Have recalls become more common?

In the context of pet foods alone, it's difficult to say if recalls have increased in prevalence, as readily available data is difficult to come by. In general, food recalls (human and pet) have increased mildly, about 10% over the last 5 years (2013-2018) according to the Public Interest Research Group. However, the danger spelled by this finding seems to be overstated. Below is a summary of foodborne disease outbreaks, hospitalizations, deaths, and food product recalls by years according to CDC data.

Looking at the 6-year trend, outbreaks, hospitalizations, deaths, and recalls related to outbreaks have remained relatively stable. This suggests that the increase in food recalls over time is primarily related to an increase in preventative recalls (recalls not linked to an outbreak) due to improved legislative attention to food safety. As it happens, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was passed in 2011. According to the FDA's information page, it is "transforming the nation’s food safety system by shifting the focus from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it." Since introduction, FSMA has been improved upon and amended, and increased recalls are to be expected during such changes as previously unidentified concerns are found and addressed.

It's difficult to extrapolate this data to pertain to pet foods as well, as the number of deaths related to item recalls is not as diligently documented, for a variety of reasons. However, foods for animal consumption are governed under FSMA as well, so it is reasonable that it may be playing a role in the perception of increased recalls, through increasing the number of preventative recall factors successfully identified. This was an important step for pet food safety, and the change should be welcome, despite the negative perception of recalls. Inclusion of pet foods in this legislation was driven in part by the melamine recalls of 2007, which ultimately included over 100 brands, and involved illness of hundreds to thousands of US pets. The national attention led to a demand for higher standards, and FSMA was one way of the pet food industry and policymakers delivering.

Most recently, compliance for the "Preventative Controls for Animal Foods" was due in September 2017 for large businesses and September 2019 for very small businesses. The exact requirements can be found on this page. Ultimately, improved regulations on the industry, continuing in a stepwise manner, seem to contribute to a perceived increase in recalls. This does not mean that the quality of food production is in decline, but rather that seemingly "new" issues are finally being addressed after going unnoticed for so long.

Recent Recalls

A complete list of recalls on pet food can be found through the FDA and through the AVMA. While it is important to stay informed about the recalls surrounding products we provide to our pets, the number of recalls alone is not a reliable indicator of product safety or quality. Important considerations such as the type of recall, cause of initiation, trends over time, manufacturer market share, and company response should always be taken into account.

Annual Report from Pet Nutrition Alliance

We are pleased to share our Annual Report of the work of the Pet Nutrition Alliance and thank you for your continued engagement and support as members. It has been a busy year for PNA. We have completed a search process and transitioned from our former association management company. We are pleased to announce the hiring of our new Executive Director, Betsy Grenier with Hannah Street Consulting. Ms. Grenier is a very welcome addition to PNA.

This year our work continues toward the overarching goal of providing unbiased, evidence-based tools for veterinary healthcare teams. To ensure that our work remains of value to veterinary team members and the public alike, PNA engaged in strategic planning in January 2020. This extensive process allowed our Board to identify strategies for continued expansion of our current work. Through our strategic planning, PNA developed the following four future goals:

Value to the Profession

1. To be the unbiased trusted source of information, tools and resources for veterinary teams and pet owners to support better decisions concerning pet nutrition.

Outreach and Influence

2. To change behavior and practice regarding pet nutrition through science and messaging that is compelling to the pet owner.

3. To be a strong, clear voice on pet nutrition by leveraging the reach and resources of traditional and non-tradition partners who focus on the health of the pet.

PNA Organizational Development and Sustainability

4. To be a sound, sustainable organization with the leadership, engagement, and human and financial resources to advance its mission at a high level of excellence.

In alignment with our first goal, we completed the second iteration (launched January 2020) of our pet food manufacturers tool “Dare to Ask: We Did!” which is a resource to help veterinary healthcare teams make more informed decisions when recommending pet food for their patients. We have identified an opportunity to increase awareness and use of this valuable took, which will be a focus of our effort in the coming year.

Based on our strategic plan, we identified a need to more specifically help pet owners in addition to the veterinary healthcare teams. To address all of our stated strategic goals, we are exploring a significant partnership that we hope to bring to fruition in 2021 – 2022 that will constitute a major new tool for the public and the veterinary healthcare team.

A by-product of this work will be an intentional focus on expanding our Advisory Committee, which we created initially in 2019 to address areas of pet nutrition on which the PNA Board and Educational Tools Committee do not have expertise. We plan to use the Advisory Committee to supplement the Board of Directors with experts to provide guidance on topics such as pet food manufacturing, marketing and other key areas important for PNA’s growth.

PNA’s website continues to add content through the hard work of the Educational Tools Committee and enjoy increased traffic. Comparing the period of June 1, 2018 – May 31, 2019 to June 1, 2019 – May 31, 2020, we note substantial growth in the utilization of our resources:

· Total visits rose from 153,243 to 418,731 (173%)

· Organic search traffic rose from 122,387 visits to 319,831 (161%)

· Direct traffic visits increased to 59,864 from 22,701 (163%)

· Traffic from mobile devices increased from 3,445 to 8,522 (147%)

· Traffic from social media channels increased from 84,359 to 223,276 (164%)

Important Information About

AAVN Membership Renewal

The AAVN is now processing membership renewals online via our new website! All active members should have received an email notice on Monday, July 13th with a link to login to your profile, update your information and renew your membership. (Please note that student members will not receive this notice and will not have profiles on the website.)

Due to the late start to this process, memberships will not expire until September 30th, with late fee of $15 after that date.

Also, a reminder that the AAVN Executive Board has voted NOT to increase dues for the 2020-2021 membership year. The cost for an active membership will remain level at $85, retired members and 2nd year new graduates will be $42.50. Please note that first year new graduates, life and honorary members do not pay dues.

For AAVN Student Chapter Members & Faculty Advisors: Student Chapter Constitutions Due 10/15

In order to standardize our chapters across institutions, the AAVN Student Member Committee has developed a template constitution for each chapter. To maintain an active student chapter (NEW & EXISTING) during the 2020 – 2021 academic year, student chapters must:

1. Review and fill-out the AAVN Student Chapter Constitution Template, available on the AAVN website. Edits to this template may be made. Please use “Track Changes” under the Review tab of Microsoft Word when editing this document.

2. Submit this document to the Executive Director of AAVN (aavnexecutive@gmail.com) with a register of officer and faculty advisor names with contact information including email and phone number BY OCTOBER 15^th. If the information is not received by this date, an existing student chapter will be placed in inactive status.

If you have any questions about filling out this template, please email Martha Cline (marthagcline@gmail.com).

Virtual Nutrition Conferences in 2020

Starting in June 2020, the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Forum will offer recorded sessions (70+) and poster abstracts (300) ‘on demand’. Tiered pricing is available at the ACVIM website. 60+ hours of CE will be possible, RACE-approval pending.

24th ESVCN Virtual Congress

September 17th-19th. More than 200 abstracts will be presented. Sessions will be recorded and available for one month after the Congress.

To learn more/register: http//esvcn.org

https://functionalfood.conferenceseries.com/

Sept. 25-26, 2020 Vancouver, Canada

AAVN IS GRATEFUL TO THE SUPPORT OF OUR SPONSORS

Scientific Program Sponsor

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AAVN Business Meeting Sponsor

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Student Programs Sponsor

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A Friendly Reminder from the Newsletter Editor

Your colleagues would enjoy hearing about interesting nutrition-related cases that you've seen in your daily practice, or some different learning activities you've instituted in a nutrition course. Please consider sharing a short write-up that we can include in a future newsletter.

AAVN Announcements

Are you planning on publishing an article or making a nutrition presentation some time in 2020? We'd love to announce it for you! Please send to the Executive Directors at aavnexecutive@gmail.com or the E-newsletter editor aboodsarah@gmail.com