So… to help pet parents BETTER understand the safety measures already in place to protect pets from HPAI, I have to geek out for a few minutes and give you some science. My goal is to define things and not lose you in a bunch of technical terms.
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Viruses are not alive by themselves. They are “packages” of genetic material and they have a little “casing” around them.
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In the case of HPAI, its DNA material is surrounded by an envelope. This envelope is a protein wall. This protein wall is very similar to the membrane around a bacterium. This is good in the case of food safety.
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HPP or high pressure processing/pasteurization affects the envelope around the virus particle. So proper HPP technique SHOULD prevent the wall around the virus from reforming…making sure the virus cannot cause disease. The envelope is NECESSARY for the virus to infect.
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Many raw pet food manufacturers HPP their poultry products such as chicken and turkey. This is why poultry products have been implicated many times in salmonella recalls, although no one was sick in the raw space.
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NWN (Northwest Naturals) is HPP’d
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So If the government finds HPAI DNA, is that conclusive in a properly HPPd product? Because… if the HPP worked, the envelope AROUND the viral DNA gets destroyed and the DNA CANNOT infect.
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Or…
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Is the government looking for a scapegoat for a poor little kitty who got sick and died from the flu?
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After all, this strain of the flu has been making its way across the United States since 2021.Until now, no action has been taken. So… who is really to blame when a cat becomes ill from a highly pathogenic flu virus when the government didn’t act when they should have?
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It’s much easier to blame a type of pet food that is despised by the government than it is to take blame for NOT informing the public sooner.
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Yes… there were some whispers back in August 2024 of concerns about the virus in meat. And the government was “taking a watch” to see what happens.
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Well…
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They watched and they waited. And here’s what happened…We finally find reason to blame raw pet food for a new type of illness.
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There’s a lot of information missing in the reporting of this cat. We don’t know the history of this poor little cat that got sick. We don’t know how long the owner had it or if it had been sick with some underlying disease. We don’t know if it goes outside and if it hunts birds. We don’t know if there are other sources by which this cat could have been infected by HPAI.
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However… the conventional system has been elated to spread this “horrible news“ story.
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And now… we have panic. Just in time for the new year! And I know… I sound sarcastic again. But we had a similar issue just a year ago!
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Anyone remember the mystery disease that was killing dogs around the holiday season in 2023? For all we know, that was a different form of the flu. (The “mystery disease” was never identified.)
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It was ABSOLUTELY reason to send humans into a panic about their fur babies. Lots of dogs got vaccinated extra for kennel cough and the flu last year…WITHOUT ever identifying the cause!
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Well…this time we have one! The headlines can definitely appear to scream, “raw pet food is going to kill us all.”
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So sorry for my skepticism here. But Northwest Naturals is a high pressure pasteurize poultry product. The envelope was destroyed. The laboratory testing detects DNA. It does NOT detect a viable, active virus. The company has been struck by the scapegoat system of the federal government.
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Oh..
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And Merry Christmas!
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Way to make an announcement while the majority of the country was on holiday.
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Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.