perm filename TAURIN.NS[1,JMC] blob sn#844653 filedate 1987-08-13 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
a004  2222  13 Aug 87
PM-Deadly Cat Food, Bjt,0612
Supplements Eliminate Heart Disease Problem With Cat Foods
By PAUL RAEBURN
AP Science Editor
    NEW YORK (AP) - Commercial cat foods that had been found to cause a
feline heart ailment that kills tens of thousands of cats in this
country each year have been changed to make them safe, a researcher
says. 
    In a report published today in Science magazine, Dr. Paul Pion and
colleagues at the University of California at Davis said that the cat
foods caused the ailment by failing to provide enough of an essential
nutrient.
    Cats with inadequate amounts of the nutrient, taurine, in their
bloodstreams developed dilated cardiomyopathy. Treatment with taurine
cured the disease, said Pion, a veterinarian.
    The disorder is similar to a human ailment that can be treated only
with a heart transplant or an artificial heart.
    The cat research might one day lead to discovery of the cause and a
treatment for the human disease, called congestive heart failure,
Pion said. 
    ''What we have found applies directly only to cats,'' he said.
''Whether there's a human component, we don't know yet. We have
people who are looking at that.'' 
    Pion said the products found to cause low taurine in cats have been
now been supplemented with taurine.
    ''There's no blame here, and there's no way anybody could have known
taurine deficiency caused this disease,'' Pion said. Taurine is found
in fish and meat, he said.
    Roy Martin, director of science and technology at the Pet Food
Institute, said, ''We're confident today that the amount of taurine
in most foods is adequate to meet the requirements for the pets we
are feeding.'' 
    According to the Washington, D.C.-based institute, which represents
makers of pet foods, U.S. families own 56.2 million cats.
    The foods that had been found to produce low taurine levels in
Pion's study were Hill's C-D, Hill's Science Diet Maintenance, Hill's
H-D, Purina Cat Chow, 9 Lives Beef and Liver, Blue Mountain Kitty O's
and Carnation Fancy Feast Beef and Liver, according to the Science
magazine report.
    Pion said that he believes the formula for Blue Mountain Kitty O's
has been changed and all the other products have been supplemented
with taurine.
    He said taurine deficiency is a major cause of dilated
cardiomyopathy and possibly the only cause. ''I haven't seen an
exception yet,'' he said.
    Dr. Richard Thoma, a veterinarian and head of the American
Association of Feline Practitioners, said that the disease is a
moderately important health problem in cats.
    ''We don't see a lot of it, but it certainly is one of the more
important cardiac diseases that we see in the cat,'' he said.
    Pion and his UC-Davis collaborators Dr. Mark Kittleson, Dr. Quinton
Rogers and Dr. James Morris studied three groups of cats.
    The first was made up of 23 cats with dilated cardiomyopathy that
were brought to the animal clinic by their owners. Four died within
hours of arrival and two died later, but the 17 others recovered
completely after being given taurine and put on new diets. 
    A second group, of 11 cats, were fed low-taurine diets in the
laboratory. Two developed dilated cardiomyopathy. More recent studies
have shown that about 30 percent of cats fed that diet will develop
the disease, Pion said.
    The researchers then examined the records of 27 cats who had been
diagnosed at the hospital with dilated cardiomyopathy. Only four of
those cats are alive. Three had been put on new diets shortly after
their disease was diagnosed. The fourth was cured with taurine
supplements.
    
 
AP-NY-08-14-87 0107EDT
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