March 17, 2022
The peer-reviewed article, which appears in Frontiers in Animal Science, includes data that did not indicate a significant increase, nationally in DCM incidence over time, from 2000 to 2019, while grain-free pet food store sales grew 500% between 2011 and 2019. Researchers also found no correlation between the national DCM incidence rate in relation to grain-free pet food sales
June 15, 2020
Journal of Animal Science (JAS) invited BSM Partners to conduct a literature review on dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs and the grain-free pet foods. The authors found no peer-reviewed evidence of a casual link between grain-free and legume-rich diets and DCM.
August 30, 2023
Animal nutritionist and veterinarians from BSM Partners, the largest pet care research and consulting firm, and the University of Illinois, published the results of a six-month study that found both grain-inclusive and grain-free canine diets had no negative effect on digestibility or the fecal microbiome.
August 9, 2023
Diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) has been suspected in breeds that have not been previously noted to have a predisposition to the DCM phenotype. This study did not detect the development of cardiac dysfunction throughout the study period through the echocardiographic parameters measured, select cardiac biomarkers, or endomyocardial biopsies.
June 15, 2020
This study observed a poor to moderate correlation between circulating concentrations of taurine and carnitine and skeletal and cardiac muscle concentrations. The reliability of whole blood and plasma taurine and plasma carnitine samples or skeletal muscle samples to evaluate cardiac concentrations seems limited; caution should be given to research and clinical evaluation of the heart on blood parameters alone.
Dr. Bradley Quest
DVM
Previously the Senior veterinarian at Mars Petcare North America, Dr. Quest is a globally recognized pet care professional. Dr. Quest has worked exclusively in functional pet product research & development, clinical efficacy testing, process development and technical services for most of his career. He was one of the first pet food industry professionals to develop global standards for product safety and efficacy testing. Dr. Quest has developed and clinically tested many of the leading health benefit products in the pet food industry. Prior to working in the pet food industry, Dr. Quest actively practiced veterinary medicine as a partner in a private veterinary practice.
Dr. Stephanie Clark
PhD, CVT, PAS, CFS, Dipl. ACAS, VTS (Nutrition)
Dr. Clark holds a doctorate from Southern Illinois University in animal nutrition and is a certified veterinary technologist and food scientist. She also has her veterinary technician specialty in clinical nutrition. Her main studies focused on digestibility and the microbiome of working dogs and horses. Dr. Clark received two awards for “Outstanding Researcher”. She continued with her post-doctorate at Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with the pet food industry, where she was also awarded the first two grants to support therapy dog welfare and earned her title of Assistant Professor of Medicine.
Dr. Sydney McCauley
PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAS
Dr. McCauley holds a PhD in animal nutrition from Virginia Tech. There she was awarded the John Lee Pratt endowment to research the relationship between glucose and fatty acid metabolism, using stable isotope tracers, in low birth weight neonatal pigs and the role on metabolic diseases later in life. Additionally, Dr. McCauley’s focus was on improving growth and performance in low birth weight neonates with a concentration on carbohydrate metabolism as well as protein synthesis and degradation in skeletal muscle.
Dr. Renee Streeter
DVM, DACVN
Dr. Streeter is a Veterinarian and Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. She obtained her undergraduate degree in animal science from Cornell University and worked as a farm animal nutritionist before attending veterinary school at Ross University. Her clinical rotations were done at Cornell University’s college of veterinary medicine, where she stayed on to do her Clinical Nutrition residency. Thereafter she worked in general practice and nutrition. Currently she helps industry clients through her position as the Clinical Nutrition Services Practice Principal at BSM Partners and helps veterinary patients as a Clinical Nutritionist, taking referrals through veterinarians.
August Konie
MS, MBA
Previously, Mr. Konie has led various multi-billion-dollar companies at executive levels whose teams included Food Safety, Quality Assurance, Laboratory Service and Regulatory Compliance. He has worked abroad standardizing programs in Asia and Europe with various start-ups, as well as, collaborating on quality systems with several food companies in South America and served on many technical committees.
Research Partners
University of Missouri, Veterinary Health Center
Chief of Cardiology: Dr. Stacey Leach, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Cardiology)
Kansas State University, College of Veterinary Medicine
Clinical Associate Professor of Cardiology: Dr. Justin Thomason, DVM, DACVIM (Cardiology)
Washington State University, College of Veterinary Medicine
Assistant Professor Cardiology: Dr. Ryan Baumwart, DVM, DACVIM (Cardiology)
The Heart Vet
Owner: Dr. Eva Oxford, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Cardiology)
The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Animal Science: College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences
Assistant Professor: Dr. Maria Cattai de Godoy, PhD
Shiva Garimella, PhD, CFS and August Konie
Involved in “Incidence of Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy Diagnosed at Referral Institutes and Grain-Free Pet Food Store Sates: A Retrospective Survey”
Virginia Tech University, School of Animal Science
Associate Professor: Samer W. El-Kadi, PhD
University of California San Diego, Biochemical Genetics Laboratory
Carnitine Analysis and Method Development
Clinical research supervisor: Jon Gangoiti
FIOS Genomics and MS’Omics
Despite much discussion regarding the hypothesized link between grain-free and legume-rich diets and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), more data is needed to draw sound conclusions about the relationship between nutrition and canine cardiac disease.
To better understand this issue, BSM Partners has made a significant commitment to develop and implement multiple scientific studies. These include original research related to:
BSM’s scientists will be examining amino acid levels in the cardiac and skeletal muscle of dogs and how dogs absorb amino acids from different types of diets.
BSM’s scientists will be examining foodomics from the four test diets varying in carbohydrate sources and amount of animal-protein amount.
BSM’s scientists will be examining metabolites and metabolic pathways in multiple samples to understand which, if any metabolites may be up- or down-regulated pending dietary changes.
BSM’s scientists will be examining anti-nutrient factors throughout the extrusion process to assess how different carbohydrates respond to the manufacturing process of extruded kibbles.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased or uncirculated information and documents controlled by the U.S. government, state, or other public authority upon request.
2019-07-30 2019-7412
FOIA 2019-7412 is asking for all of the reported cases in their DCM case file.
2020-11-30 2020-8151
FOIA 2020-8151, which we are still waiting on, is based on the CVM’s statement of over 1,100 cases at the K State Symposium. As of February of this year, we are still waiting.
2021-10-13
We asked several universities to participate in our DCM research. Unfortunately, we were turned down by a major veterinarian who claims DCM was on the rise.
2018-03-27 2019-1704
In the Schulof FOIA files, you can clearly see different things were redacted from our original FOIA.
2023-10-02
We asked specific universities for information and received these responses from their records offices. These are universities that had gone to the FDA’s CVM stating that DCM was on the rise. Again, either unwilling to share information or do not have those records created.
Below is a wide variety of educational resources. If you would like to share additional resources, please contact us using the form on our homepage.
*BSM Partners does not endorse any organization noted here, nor the data or services they may provide*
The Disconnection Between Grain Free Foods & DCM
Contact your pet food supplier and ask the hard questions.
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