Using dry dog food label information, the risk of gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) was hypothesized to increase with an increasing number of soy and cereal ingredients and decreasing number of animal-protein ingredients among the first four ingredients. A nested case-control study was conducted with 85 GDV cases and 194 controls consuming a single brand and variety of dry food. Neither an increasing number of animal-protein ingredients (p=0.79) nor an increasing number of soy and cereal ingredients (p=0.83) among the first four ingredients significantly influenced GDV risk. An unexpected finding was that dry foods containing an oil or fat ingredient (e.g., sunflower oil, animal fat) among the first four ingredients were associated with a significant (p=0.01), 2.4-fold increased risk of GDV. These findings suggest that feeding dry dog foods that list oils or fats among the first four label ingredients predisposes a high-risk dog to GDV.
Reference: Raghavan et al, JAAHA 42:57-64, 2006.