When dog owners toss their dog companions a brag hang to gnaw on, they competence not be wakeful that a renouned provide could be packaged with calories and infested with bacteria, researchers say. And pet owners competence not even know that a hang is done from an uncooked, dusty longhorn penis.
In a tiny study, researchers examined a representation of 26 brag sticks, also famous as pizzle sticks, done in a United States and Canada. They found that a treats contained 9 to 22 calories per inch. That means a normal 6-inch brag hang potentially represents 9 percent of a endorsed daily calorie count for a incomparable 50-pound (22-kilogram) dog and 30 percent of a mandate for a smaller 10-pound (4.5-kg) dog — a poignant source of calories pet owners competence not be wakeful of.
“With obesity in pets on a rise, it is critical for pet owners to cause in not usually their dog’s food, though also treats and list food,†researcher Lisa Freeman, a highbrow of nourishment during Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine during Tufts University, pronounced in a statement.
Tests for germ showed that one of a treats contained Clostridium difficile, one was infested with methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and 7 contained E. coli. The researchers remarkable that their representation was tiny and a some-more endless examine is indispensable to examine a widespread decay rate in brag sticks. But they pronounced their formula during slightest advise pet owners should rinse their hands after touching such treats, as they would with any tender meat.
(This isn’t a initial time a pet provide has been related with contamination. Researchers from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2010 in a biography Pediatrics that an conflict of salmonella in 79 people between 2006 and 2008 was caused by infested dry pet food.)
While a source of a brag sticks is no secret, many pet owners don’t seem to be wakeful that a treats are done from a tender penises of bulls or steers, a consult by a investigate group showed. A 20-question online check finished by 852 dog owners from 44 states and 6 countries showed that 44 percent of respondents could rightly brand a source of brag sticks as longhorn penises. (Twenty-three percent pronounced they fed their dogs a treats.) And there was even some difficulty among veterinarians — an unimpressive infancy of vets (62 percent) polled by a researchers knew where brag sticks came from.
“We were astounded during a transparent misconceptions pet owners and veterinarians have with pet dishes and many of a renouned tender animal-product formed pet treats now on a market,†pronounced Freeman in a statement. “For example, 71 percent of people feeding brag sticks to their pets settled they equivocate by-products in pet foods, nonetheless brag sticks are, for all intents and purposes, an animal by-product.â€
The investigate is minute in this month’s emanate of a Canadian Veterinary Journal.
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