Our companion animal populations are an important part of our lives and share among other things our home environments. The foods that we feed our dogs and cats may be a combination of commercially available raw meat diets, companion animal diets (soft/moist; dry/low moisture kibble-type products), and pet treats (“cookies”, chicken jerky, beef jerky, pig ears, etc.); many of these products have been the subject of recalls by the FDA due to contamination of the product with various microbiological agents.

Commercially available raw meat diets have not been the subject of many recent large scale pet food recalls, but nonetheless they are important potential source of zoonotic agents for in contact owners and in contact humans. In fact the CDC does not recommend that raw meat as a component of our pet’s diet. The FDA has an equally strong position on raw diets and in fact “does not believe raw meat foods for animals are consistent with the goal of protecting the public from significant health risks, particularly when such products are brought into the home and/or used to feed domestic pets”.