Review of the modern approaches to healthy diets for dogs and cats

Abstract

The paper presents the results of analysis of information sources concerning healthy diets for dogs and cats. It establishes that nowadays there is an increase in the importance of such feed characteristics as safety, guaranteed controllable indexes, digestibility, attractiveness and high nutritional value. Examination of the impact of dietary intrusions aimed at using non-invasive research can apply methods ranging from express-analysisу, analyses in vitro and in vivo to molecular technologies. Since it is necessary to ensure active longevity of domestic animals, the main trend in modern petfood industry is development of feed lines for healthy animal diets. It has caused an increase in the quantity and diversity of manufactured feeds, higher requirements for their composition, production of functional feeds and feed supplements. Ensuring usefulness and safety of healthy manufactured feeds takes place at all stages of their production provided that healthy characteristics of raw materials are retained and the final stage of this process is testing taste characteristics. Taking into consideration the requirements for healthy diets for domestic animals, main recommendations are determined by the Association of American Feed Control Officials / AAFCO; European Petfood Industry Federation / FEDIAF (Fédération Européenne De l’Industrie des aliments pour Animaux Familiers); National Research Council / NRC. The main directions in control exerted by these organizations are feed evaluation, ensuring safety of use, the system of preventing violations in feed safety and providing generally available information concerning feed compliance. In Ukraine producers of healthy feeds for dogs and cats use a nutrient approach according to the manual FEDIAF. They apply Holistic-fresh technology, functional healthy supplements, prebiotics and probiotics, alpha-tocopherol as an antioxidant that arouses interest in animal owners.