Back in 2018, the FDA announced that they were researching a link between grain-free diets and DCM (canine dilated cardiomyopathy). They based this study off of approximately 560 dogs & cats (out of over 70 million within the US) and sent pet owners into a panic thinking what they were feeding their pets could be causing more harm than good.
The good news is that BSM Partners, a pet care research and consulting company, recently launched their own investigation into the matter and found no clear or confirmed link to grain-free and DCM. You can read the full study by the Journal of Animal Science here.
“We wanted to gain the best understanding of this issue, so we examined the results of more than 150 studies, which taken together did not support a link between grain-free and legume-rich diets, and DCM,” said Dr. Sydney McCauley, an animal nutritionist and the article’s lead author. “What the science does make clear is that DCM is largely an inherited disease.”
To summarize their findings from the Journal of Animal Science study, BSM Partners found that there wasn’t scientific evidence to support the theory that DCM is caused by a grain-free or legume-rich diet. In fact, they concluded that the original study by the FDA had incomplete information and made it impossible to draw any conclusion from the data provided.
Further research is needed to determine what is actually causing DCM, but from what research currently shows there is no connection between DCM and a grain-free diet. Click here to read the FDA or click here to read the Pet Business summary of their findings.