Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety "Carlo Cantoni," University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
Foodborne Pathog Dis. 2021 Jan;18(1):56-62. doi: 10.1089/fpd.2020.2839. Epub 2020 Oct 23.
Recent foodborne pathogen outbreaks associated with dry pet food and treats have focused the attention on these products as vehicles of pathogens for both pets and their owners. This study investigates the purchasing habits of dog owners and determines if and in what form pet snacks can be potentially dangerous for humans, especially for children. For these purposes, questionnaires collected from 406 dog owners were evaluated and microbiological analyses were performed on 120 dry pet snacks. The shape of the pet snack affects the purchase (median score, Mdn = 6.4) and the star bone was the preferred one (Mdn = 7.1). Most of the participants (76.0%; < 0.001) stated that snacks are attractive to their children and that the possibility for children to get in contact with pet snacks is rare, but not implausible (Mdn = 3.1). Indeed, more than 6% of respondents admitted that there had been incidents of involuntary ingestion of pet snacks, with fever and gastrointestinal manifestations. Microbiological analyses showed that 119 dry pet snacks analyzed of a total of 120 (99.2%) were in good sanitary condition except for one sample where the presence of was confirmed. The upward trend in the presence of pets in households and the strong and continuous growth in value and volume of the pet food market led researchers to analyze possible public health issues. Children and infants in particular are the most exposed subjects as they are more likely to come into contact with pet snacks, attracted by a shape similar to that of a toy. For this reason, although our findings did not highlight important microbiological contamination of pet snacks, it would be useful to standardize food safety criteria with those for human food from a One Health perspective.
最近与干宠物食品和零食有关的食源性致病菌暴发引起了人们对这些产品的关注，这些产品可能成为宠物及其主人的病原体载体。本研究调查了狗主人的购买习惯，并确定宠物零食是否以及以何种形式对人类，尤其是儿童，构成潜在危险。为此，评估了从 406 名狗主人那里收集的问卷，并对 120 种干宠物零食进行了微生物分析。宠物零食的形状会影响购买行为（中位数得分，Mdn=6.4），而星形骨头是最受欢迎的形状（Mdn=7.1）。大多数参与者（76.0%；<0.001）表示，零食对他们的孩子有吸引力，孩子接触宠物零食的可能性很小，但并非不可能（Mdn=3.1）。事实上，超过 6%的受访者承认，有宠物零食被孩子意外摄入的情况，表现出发热和胃肠道症状。微生物分析显示，在所分析的 120 种干宠物零食中，除了有 存在的一个样本外，共有 119 种（99.2%）处于良好的卫生条件。随着宠物在家庭中的比例上升，以及宠物食品市场的价值和规模持续强劲增长，研究人员分析了可能存在的公共卫生问题。儿童和婴儿尤其容易受到影响，因为他们更容易接触到宠物零食，这些零食的形状类似于玩具，对他们很有吸引力。因此，尽管我们的研究结果没有发现宠物零食存在重要的微生物污染，但从“同一健康”的角度出发，将食品安全标准与人类食品的标准标准化将是有用的。
