Can I give my cat a taste of raw bacon from time to time?

[misterwhiskers]

Hi, let me clarify first by saying that my cat is not on a raw food diet per se. But sometimes I will give him a little raw hamburger, and recently he begged me for a taste of raw bacon, just a teeny piece of the fat. Is this safe to do? Thank you.

 

[Columbine]

I'm no expert, but I can't see that the occasional taste would do any harm. It is rather high in salt, but then, so is parmesan (which Asha adores, but rarely gets). Shadow's partial to smoked salmon, and again, very occasionally he gets a taste.

Not sure what others will say, but that's my take on it

 

[mservant]

I'm not an expert either but - as there has been increasing concern about the presence of Hepatitis E in pork, and the research to date doesn't seem to have identified whether the curing process or meats such as bacon deactivate the virus it would seem sensible to avoid cats eating raw bacon / pork products just as much as humans.  While the risks are presumably low, esp where the meat being consumed is not pig organs / liver or products made using pig blood, I still don't think it's something I would want to give my cat.  Nor would I want to handle pork or processed pork products without very good hand hygiene.

Thankfully pork is not something I can remember reading about anyone feeding their cats as a regular food source.

 

[LTS3]

Dr. Lisa adds bacon fat to her raw food:

Cats need a reasonable amount of animal fat in their diet.  In fact, I have been playing around with adding a little bit of bacon fat to individual meals to give my cats a variety in flavor.

I baked 18 ounces of the fattiest nitrite-free bacon I could find and it yielded 16 TBS of fat.  I used a broiling pan to catch the drippings.  Cook it slowly until the bacon is dry and crispy. That way, you will collect the most fat from the bacon.  The dried bacon makes nice bacon bits for non-vegetarians.  Or you can feed them to your cats as treats. Nitrites in cured meats is a controversial subject so I opted to purchase nitrite-free bacon from Whole Foods Market.

http://catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood

A tiny bit of the meaty part of nitrite free bacon would be ok as a treat.

 But sometimes I will give him a little raw hamburger,

Most people here discourage feeding ground supermarket meat because of bacteria mixed throughout the meat during the grinding process. A tiny little piece may not hurt a cat, though.

 

[mservant]

@LTS3   The main difference with adding the bacon fat and feeding the remaining bacon bits you describe here to the original post is that it has been cooked very thoroughly.  Thorough cooking at high temperature is believed to kill hepatitis E virus (along with the many others which pork may carry).

 

[Columbine]

mservant 's point about Hep E is a good one. Being vegetarian myself, I'm not very aware of that kind of issue. I can't remember the last time bacon was in the house!

 

[nansiludie]

You could cook the bacon first, cool it then offer a little piece. I agree LTS3 about the very high bacteria load in pre-ground store bought meat. I do not feed any pre-ground sotre bought ground meat, I grind my own.

 

[misterwhiskers]

Oh boy, I sure am glad I asked. I had never even HEARD of Hep E!!! So he's never getting it unless cooked (which he won't touch)--and I will be VERY careful to handle raw pork products, more so than before. Thank you thank YOU!!!!

 

[mservant]

@misterwhiskers   I think it is a relatively recent finding in food hygiene research:  HEV started to appear more frequently in developed countries and as a different strain to that found in people who had traveled in developing countries.  It is a cross - species strain and can affect humans, cats and dogs as well as other animals according to the various articles I've read.  I'm really glad you asked about the bacon as it isn't something many people know about.

 

[dorge]

I often used to give my cats raw bacon when I was cooking it. They also loved raw mince. Personally I don't think it does much harm. Dorge lived for 14 years and his sister Tara is still living and enjoying the occasional raw bacon and mince! However, it might be wise to seek advice from your vet. Dorge in particular used to eat the occasional raw mouse, though I don't think he ever ate rats. He just used to leave them dead behind the toilet door, so when I shut the door I would get a fright!!

 

[mservant]

 
I often used to give my cats raw bacon when I was cooking it. They also loved raw mince. Personally I don't think it does much harm. Dorge lived for 14 years and his sister Tara is still living and enjoying the occasional raw bacon and mince! However, it might be wise to seek advice from your vet. Dorge in particular used to eat the occasional raw mouse, though I don't think he ever ate rats. He just used to leave them dead behind the toilet door, so when I shut the door I would get a fright!!

@Dorge  the Hepatitis risk in pork is a recent development, and I've not heard of a similar link with any other meat or poultry.

 

[mschauer]

 
I'm not an expert either but - as there has been increasing concern about the presence of Hepatitis E in pork, and the research to date doesn't seem to have identified whether the curing process or meats such as bacon deactivate the virus it would seem sensible to avoid cats eating raw bacon / pork products just as much as humans.  While the risks are presumably low, esp where the meat being consumed is not pig organs / liver or products made using pig blood, I still don't think it's something I would want to give my cat.  Nor would I want to handle pork or processed pork products without very good hand hygiene.

Thankfully pork is not something I can remember reading about anyone feeding their cats as a regular food source.

The risk seems to be primarily with pork liver:

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/11/14-0891_article

 Our findings clearly demonstrate that some food products that contain raw pork liver and are marketed to be cooked by the consumer can harbor HEV. The close sequence identity observed strongly suggests that foodborne transmission of HEV occurs frequently. 

Pork meat could become contaminated if it comes into contact with pork liver.

I and many other raw feeders feed pork on a regular basis although I don't feed pork liver. Given pork is a favorite with my cats I'm not going to stop feeding it without more information. Certainly an issue to keep an eye on though.

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Edit:

From Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat, Craig E. Greene :

 There has been concern, but no documented proof, that dogs and cats develop clinical illness from infection with HEV or transmit infection to people.4'55"°3"°° Anti-HEV globulins have been detected in species of wild and domestic animals."7 Experimentally the virus has a broad host range. Chimpanzees, Old World and New World monkeys,pigs, rodents, and sheep have been experimentally infected. One swine isolate has been shown to have the broadest host range. Evidence of zoonotic transmission of infection occurred between a domestic pig and its owners.M In one report, a person from Iapan with hepatitis E who had not traveled was suspected to have become infected in the home environment.55 Fever, malaise, icterus, and brown-colored urine
were observed in the family members. They were seronegative;however, the patient’s cat had a high HEV IgG titer. Although cats and dogs from Japan had antibodies to HEV in their sera, no virus could be detected by PCR of fecal specimens.“ A high percentage (33%) of pet cats in Japan were shown to have an increased serum antibodytiter to HEV“; however, HEV DNA was not detected in the cats"l or in the livers of 98 dogs with a variety of forms of hepatitis.'7

So it seems common for cats to carry the virus but to not develop disease from it.

 

[2bcat]

One of my cats likes a bite of cooked bacon, but the other does not.  Never thought about giving them a raw piece.  They are uninterested in cooked or raw chicken, and that's about all the meat I ever cook at home these days.  Oh I guess there's some fish but mostly I don't consider giving them bites of it.