Innovative Animal Health Research Identifies Links Between Nutrition and Disease

"You are what you eat," so they say. And just as your diet affects your health, what your pets eat also affects their risk of disease.

Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) founder, Dr. Mark Morris Sr., recognized the link between health and nutrition in the early 1940s, long before the diet and nutrition have been familiar topics. Actually, he was one of the first veterinarians to use diet to control the disease. His innovation has led to nearly 100 Foundation-funded studies, so far, which has improved the nutritional health and reduced disease risk for pets, horses and wildlife.

One of Dr. Morris's first patients was Buddy, who was among the first dogs in the United States.Buddy suffered from kidney failure, and his owner, Morris Frank, as the national ambassador for the Seeing Eye, looking for Dr. Morris's advice. Dr. Morris created a special diet for Buddy, the dog's health improved dramatically, and soon he and his wife, Louise, was the preservation of food in their kitchen. When they could not keep pace with rising demand, they have partnered with Hill Packing Company to produce what later became the first Hill's Prescription Diet.

Dr. Morris used the royalties from the diet to create MAF, and the first two MAF-funded studies in 1950 looked at diet in cats and dogs. Since then, hundreds of scientific animal research studies funded by MAF and other proven what Dr. Morris suspected long ago: nutrition and disease are inextricably linked.

"The role of health and nutrition has infiltrated media Hardly a day passes without a report on the latest research on how diet causes or prevents disease in humans," says Dr. Kathryn Michel, one of only 54 members of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. "As people become more aware of the importance of a good diet for themselves, they transfer this knowledge to their animals."

Dr. Michel notes that insufficient nutrients in a pet's diet can cause serious health conditions as orthopedic and neurological problems. She adds that veterinarians see in cats cardiomyopathy associated with deficiency of the amino acid taurine, and dogs do not get the right amounts of essential amino acids. MAF has funded a number of studies have looked at the role of amino acids in maintaining good health.

The reverse may be too much food damage. Unfortunately, an estimated 30 to 40 percent of pets are overweight and 25 percent considered obese, according to the American Animal Hospital Association. Those extra pounds cause a variety of additional health issues.

Dr. Joe Barges, a professor of medicine and nutrition at the University of Tennessee and former president of the Foundation's scientific advisory board, says obesity is directly or indirectly linked to respiratory problems, diabetes, osteoarthritis, ligament tears, hypertension, urinary stones, surgical and anesthetic risks , heat intolerance and even cancer.

Perhaps most importantly, the extra weight shortens life. Results of a 14-year study recently published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, showed that Labrador retrievers fed 25 percent less than their siblings lived about 15 percent longer, and the age at which the required medical treatment for osteoarthritis or another chronic condition, was delayed for two to three years. This study showed for the first time that even a few extra pounds have harmful effects on health. The good news is that good nutrition can fight the disease.

A recent Purdue University study found that Scottish terriers where vegetables like baby carrots, at least three times per week had a 70 percent lower risk of developing bladder cancer. A MAF-funded study earlier this decade have shown that a high-protein diet may help cats with diabetes lose weight and reduce or eliminate their need for insulin. Other studies MAF has funded in a nutritional factors for diseases in many species and determined the optimal levels of certain nutrients.

For example, Dr. Barges currently using Foundation funds to assess whether a high-fiber diet supplemented with potassium citrate may prevent the development of a painful form of urinary stones, whose incidence is rising. Another study at the University of Minnesota is looking at whether the cats with increased concentrations of urine metabolites are more likely to develop orate stones. The information will help to develop more effective therapies.

"There is absolutely no doubt that health is directly affected by diet, but we still have much to learn," says Dr. Michel.

It is, therefore, MAF will keep funding research, providing veterinarians and owners the information they need to make good nutritional decisions for their pets, and help wild animals lead longer and healthier lives.