What Doctors Don't Tell YouPets and farm animals may soon be banned from receiving herbal or vitamin/mineral supplements if the US feed industry regulators get their own way.
The Association of American Feed Control Officials has recently declared animal ‘nutriceuticals and botanicals’ to be both unproven and potentially unsafe. Letters have been drafted to send to the manufacturers of veterinary healthfood products, accusing them of violating Food and Drug Administration laws by selling unlicensed substances designed to promote animal health.
According to the AAFCO, because drugs claim to cure or prevent disease, any substance that cures or prevents disease is therefore a drug.
Despite the flawed logic, the law appears to be on their side. According to US Food Regulations, any animal feed ingredient must be backed by extensive (and expensive) scientific evidence of efficacy and safety – all very well for the manufacturer of a patented drug, but not for a company providing a common everyday vitamin.
It looks like all-out warfare, with the AAFCO describing their ‘targeting’ of animal herbal and nutritional supplements as a ‘blitz’ (www. aafco.org).
Daniel Redwood DC
Richard A. Passwater PhD