Rspca Warning After Dogs Die Eating Camel Meat

[Boronia]

I thought I'd post this in this forum rather than the 'News' as more people read this forum

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03...ion=justinRSPCA warning after dogs die eating camel meat

By Gail Liston

A study has found dogs can die after eating human-grade camel meat. (AAP: Paul Miller)

A new study has found pet dogs have died after eating human-grade camel meat.

A report in this month's Australian Veterinary Journal cites several cases of severe and sometimes fatal liver disease in dogs that had eaten camel meat containing the acid indospicine.

Veterinary pathologist Dr Louise FitzGerald says it is a toxic amino acid found in plants in Australia's arid regions.

She says camels like eating the plants, so there is always potential for the meat to contain the toxin.

"What happens is that camels graze this plant, then the toxins from this plant accumulates in their system and then the toxin is then passed on to dogs when the dogs eat their meat," she said.

"We know that dogs are particularly sensitive to this toxin."

The RSPCA is warning pet owners to avoid feeding their dogs camel meat.

The association's Dr Jade Norris says the pet food industry needs to be better regulated.

"Until the pet food industry and the pet meat manufacturers can guarantee that they are aware of this toxin and that they're taking adequate steps to safeguard their products, then we'd be saying that as an absolute guarantee avoid feeding camel meat until industry can reassure everyone that these safeguards are in place."

A spokeswoman for Food Standards Australia, Lorraine Bellinger, says the authority is investigating the implications for human consumption of camel meat.

"Although there have been no reported cases of illness in people, we are reviewing studies to see if humans can also be affected by this toxin," she said.

"It's important to point out that dogs, as with other animals, can react really differently to foods than humans will.

"For example, the case that most people would recognise is chocolate, which can be extremely toxic for dogs."

Tags: human-interest, animals, australia, nt, alice-springs-0870, darwin-0800

[Diva]

As I posted in the other thread on this, this risk has been known for a couple of decades, at least in regard to feeding dogs horse meat where the horses have grazed on some native species (native indigo). I guess with more camel meat about it has resurfaced as an issue. Poor dogs.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

There is a shrubby tree out there known as "poison camel bush" (Gyrostemon ramulosus). I thought it was bad for camels, not so much that it made them poisonous to eat by carnivores. Then again there are loads of poisonous plants out there.

[Diva]

Native indigo certainly contains indospicine, as the name of the acid suggests. Not sure about what else might.