You know this is a really interesting point. I've heard this mentioned a lot in different online posts, that cat/dog food companies are essentially writing the textbooks for animal nutrition courses and brainwashing vets. A lot of vets claim that it isn't true, so I decided to look into it myself.I'm unsure as to the relationship, but from what I've heard companies such as these write a lot of material for vets in school, and once they graduate they firmly believe it IS the best food, so they sell it (some get paid for this, some don't) and put lots of dogs and cats on it because it's what they've learned is the best thing for them. They feed their own pets this food so to me this says a lot.
I just did a search for syllabus for a nutrition course offered by U of Guelph's vet school, which is well known in Canada. http://animalbiosciences.uoguelph.ca/sites/default/files/ansc_4560_course_outline_f17.pdf
From what I can see the authors of the main text book listed (Canine and Feline Nutrition) do in fact mostly work for the big cat/dog food companies.
Linda P. Case, MS (Now independent)
Autumn Gold Consulting, Mahomet, Illinois; Adjunct Assistant Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
Leighann Daristotle, DVM, PhD (now works for Blue Buffalo?)
Manager, Scientific Communications, Procter & Gamble pet Care, Lewisburg, Ohio
Michael G. Hayek, PhD
Associate Director, Research and Development, Procter & Gamble pet Care, Lewisburg, Ohio
Melody Foess Raasch, DVM
Manager, Scientific Communications, Procter & Gamble Pet Care, Mason, Ohio
Diane Hirakawa - Senior VP of R&D at Iams
This doesn't mean that these people can't be good researchers, or that all studies/research produced by corporations cannot produce good nutritional information. But I would say there is a real crisis of confidence among pet owners who don't feel they can trust in the information they are being given.
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