Resistance to E-coli and Salmonella is not immunity
Original article by S. Veigel 09/05/2015
Reviewed for relevancy and rewritten June 4, 2020
I am encouraged to find that in the 21st century we’ve come to a place where pet food is considered to be more important than just filling a pet’s stomach. It’s not a perfect situation but people are going out of their way to find the best foods for their pets and placing expectations on pet food companies to provide actual food. People, including my family, scour the internet for information, often make their own pet food and even consider going back to basics by feeding their pets raw food.
If you’re careful and well informed I really have nothing to say about this right now, but with one exception. It has to do, of course, with a raw food promotional statement I’ve seen over the course of many years. And it concerns me. It’s one of those statements where people might say, “Oh don’t worry about that. I do it and I’ve never had any problem with it”. Of course. I guess that’s true. But if you care isn’t it worth at least being informed before you charge forward?
Here are the comments I’m referring to. “Dogs don’t get Salmonella or E-coli”, “Dogs are resistant to Salmonella because of their saliva and a short digestive tract”. Or in general that dogs are “resistant” and they’ll be fine unless they have a compromised immune system. Though somewhat true, it’s misleading and could be really bad for your dog. Do you know if your dog has a compromised immune system before it’s a problem?
E coli is usually benign but when the concentration is too high your dog can get an e coli infection. This then causes blood poisoning. In a July 2000 Q&A article posted by Dr. Michael Richards, D.V.M. on the VetInfo.com website https://www.vetinfo.com/dbacterial.html titled, “Bacterial infection in dogs” subheading, “Escherichia coli (E. coli)” we are reminded that, “This (E-coli) bacteria is a normal inhabitant of the gastrointestinal tract but it does not belong in the urinary tract.” As Dr. Richards (Dr. Mike) details some great information about bacterial infections he also points out, “…E. coli infections are pretty common in dogs”.
Adding Salmonella to our discussion now the Johns Hopkins University website https://www.jhu.edu/ (using their “Search” feature) notes, “There are many different kinds of salmonella bacteria.” and “hundreds of types of strains of E. coli bacteria.” Salmonella can be passed between pets and people via fecal matter and saliva and the “germs can be shed in the stool of pets for 4 to 6 weeks after infection”.
On the researchgate.net website (link provided below) we find the following 2002 article titled, “Immunogenicity of 4127 phoP ? Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in dogs”. That’s a mouthful for most of us and the credits are equally impressive. But the take away for our purpose right now is contained in the following statement.
“Salmonellae are commonly isolated from dogs. The number of dogs infected with Salmonella spp. is surprisingly high and greater than the incidence of clinical disease would suggest. Salmonellosis is common in greyhound kennels. Morbidity can approach 100% in puppies and the mortality ranges to nearly 40%. To date, there has been little effort to evaluate the feasibility of a vaccine for control of this disease in dogs”.
I’m not going to moralize about what you feed your dogs. I absolutely know you are trying, as I am, to give your dogs the best you can find and understand. But understand this. The statistical number of dogs with serious or life threatening e coli or Salmonella infections annually is not a number that is readily available. My understanding thus far is that it’s not reliably tracked at all. But it occurs more than you think. You’re not going to find some of this information easily on search page 1 but if you’re persistent it’s out there.
If you’re going to really feed your dog raw meat (not just prepared meals referred to as “Raw”) please keep the meat frozen. Thaw the packaged meat in a sink with cold tap water until thawed (changing the water every 30 minutes) and then refrigerate. And don’t let it stand in the refrigerator more than 2 days before refreezing it. And please! Don’t think your dog has some sort of super immunity. They don’t! A little cooking (without spices or seasoning) is not just safer, easier to chew, releases more nutrients and easier to digest. They love it.
“Immunogenicity of ?4127 phoP? Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in dogsVaccine 20 (2002) 1618-1623”
Scott McVey, M.M. Chengappa, Derek E. Mosier, Gregory G. Stone, Richard D. Oberst, Matt J. Sylte
Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Nathan M. Gabbert
Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Sandra M. Kelly-Aehle
Megan Animal Health, Inc., 3655 Vista Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
Roy Curtiss III
Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA