What are the safety measures Savage Pet is taking to control H5N1/HPAI? The farms that we source from regularly test their animals for avian flu. If one bird tests positive, then the entire flock is culled. These slaughtered birds are destroyed and are not processed for consumption. The farms keep strict biosecurity measures and keep flocks separated. Only the flocks that test negative for avian flu are processed for human consumption. Savage Cat Food is made from USDA-passed and inspected meats that are food-grade, not feed-grade. No sick or unhealthy animals are ever used in our food.
What steps do you take for pathogen mitigation in your processing? We use ozone processing in our food and our facility. Ozone is the process of taking oxygen (O2) and turning it into O3, in which no pathogens can survive. Ozone is FDA-approved for meat processing and is also used in a wide variety of other industries such as hospitals, gyms and saunas due to its inactivation of salmonella, influenza, herpes, molds and more. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ranjit-Singh-36/publication/305399037_Ozone_Technology_in_Food_Processing_A_Review/links/578d118a08ae5c86c9a65391/Ozone-Technology-in-Food-Processing-A-Review.pdf
Are you testing the final product for H5N1? There are no food tests available for H5N1/HPAI. The USDA recommends the best way to keep avian influenza out of the food supply is to test living farm animals, which is what our farmers are doing. We have sent inquiries to our laboratory partners to let us know when a food test becomes available.
Can I cook your food? We do not recommend cooking our food due to the raw bone content. There is some promising research about tap water inactivating avian influenza which you can read up on here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2851495/.
