Pet Owners Forced FDA Transparency – Truth about Pet Food
We can mark one in the Win column, pet owners actions forced FDA to be transparent about their closed to the public DCM webinar.
On October 29, 2020 – we shared information with pet owners about FDA’s participation in a September 2020 invitation only webinar to discuss the latest information about the investigation into dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs and its potential link or potential no-link to pet food. Pet owners were not happy they were excluded from this DCM informational webinar.
On November 3, 2020 – the FDA came clean about their participation in this closed DCM discussion releasing this public notice: “Interdisciplinary Scientific Cooperation Will Lead the Way to Understanding of Non-Hereditary DCM, CVM Director Dr. Steven Solomon reflects on recent scientific forum to explore causes of DCM in dogs.“
Dr. Solomon said this in their late announcement of the DCM webinar (bold added): “I want to emphasize that this is not an investigative update; it’s an inflection point…“
FDA chose a cryptic but interesting way to classify this update…they termed it “an inflection point“. In math, ‘an inflection point’ is a turning point on a graph where the the line (based on data) makes a dramatic turn in the opposite direction. Dictionary.com defines ‘inflection point’ as: “a point at which a major or decisive change takes place; critical point“.
Was opposing data presented at the webinar the FDA inflection point?
The FDA claimed during their presentation the agency saw “a notable increase” in DCM reports in early 2018. But…two other presenters said something completely different.
- BSM Partners presented data on 68,000 dogs over 19 years (years 2000 through 2019) showing no increase in DCM cases in any year over the entire time frame; a consistent less than 4% DCM incident rate – contradicting FDA’s statement of “a notable increase” in 2018.
- Banfield veterinary clinic’s data on 28,734 dogs between 2018 and early 2020 showing a less than 2% incident of DCM in dogs treated at all Banfield clinics – again contradicting FDA’s statement of “a notable increase” in 2018.
Has the agency reached an inflection point in the DCM investigation because of the opposing information presented? Will pet owners see a decisive change in FDA attitude regarding this investigation?
We’ll have to wait to see.
While we wait, it’s good that FDA decided to publicly share that they participated in the closed forum. Thanks to the many pet owners that voiced their concern with FDA – the agency came clean about their participation. Better late than never.
Pet owners can read the FDA update here: https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/cvm-updates/interdisciplinary-scientific-cooperation-will-lead-way-understanding-non-hereditary-dcm
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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