Companion Animals Symposium: nutrition special needs- the relationship between novel ingredients, environment, and gene expression.

As pet foods continue to address market and health concerns, and as the volume of pet food around the world continues to grow, pressure to develop alternative ingredients and to expand existing ingredient reservoirs escalates. Alternative ingredients are considered for several reasons. These include perceived biomedical value to support the expanding need for novel proteins and starches for so-called hypoallergenic or elimination diets. Regulatory limitations on claims regarding food benefits beyond simple sustenance leaves marketing little latitude short of drawing attention to ingredients as primary points of competitive differentiation. Finally, as consumer perception of certain traditional ingredients becomes less accepting there is an increased demand for more unique, humanized, and less chemical or agricultural sounding elements. Regardless of rationale, utilization of non-traditional, novel, or experimental ingredients as alternatives necessitates the exploration of safety, efficacy and utility for pet diets. Some of this work has been accomplished for the targeted species (dogs and cats) and in some cases validation with model species such as rats and mice is available. However, many of these alternative ingredients are being utilized with little animal or food quality evaluations. Some of these alternative ingredients can be quite exotic, but most are more mainstream alternative ingredients being used with enough frequency that a closer look is warranted. This list includes such items as rabbit and duck meals for lamb and chicken meal, potato and pea protein concentrates for soybean and corn gluten meal, pea fiber for beet pulp, chia for flax, sweet potato and tapioca for grains, algal oil for fish oil, olive oil and coconut oil for soybean or canola oils, cod liver oil for vitamins A and D, and chicken cartilage for glucosamine to name a few. This presentation will review the relevant published information for the more popular alternative ingredients and identify which have scientific merit.