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- Jan 8, 2018
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New research on glyphosate:
Glyphosate Update: Dogs, Cats, Horses and People
We never thought to test cats and dogs!
When Health Research Institute started testing people for glyphosate, we just focused on people. But, a few pet owners called. They were concerned about exposure of their four-footed friends.
Our team tested a few cats and dogs, including some of our own – Ella, Shadow, Joonie and Thunder. All of them had glyphosate levels much higher than what we measured in people!
One dog had a level 200 times higher than the human average. It made us wonder, “where is all this glyphosate coming from?” To answer that question, we launched an animal exposure study parallel to the human study.
The graph below shows what we have seen so far. Cats are averaging 8 ppb which is 16 times the human average. Dogs are averaging 15.8 ppb which is 32 times the human average!
What is causing much higher glyphosate levels in animals?
You might think that exposure is due to walking outside, licking paws and grooming fur. Survey answers from study participants, however, suggest that exposure is far more dependent on pet food. Dogs that eat raw food have virtually no detectable glyphosate. Those that eat canned food have more. Those that eat kibble have higher levels. Those that eat grain-free kibble have the highest levels!
Why might grain-free kibble be the highest source of dogs’ exposure? The move by pet food makers away from corn and soy to fillers like oats, pea protein, chick peas and lentils is likely the reason.
As we have seen in the human study and by testing foods directly, crops like oats and legumes deliver the highest glyphosate levels to the consumer. This is because these crops are so often sprayed with glyphosate just before harvest, not to kill weeds but to kill the food crop to make it easier to process.
Horses eat a lot of oats and, increasingly, Roundup Ready® alfalfa, so this may explain their higher levels. We know less about why cats have higher levels because only a few cats have participated in the study so far.[/TD]
What are the consequences of chronic exposure by animals to glyphosate?
There is less research on the consequences of glyphosate on the health of pets than on the health of humans. Given the correlation between glyphosate and lymphoma in people, the question naturally arises, “Is there a connection between glyphosate and the dramatic rise in cancer rates among pets?”
Perhaps veterinary researchers will investigate and let us know. In the meantime, feel free to share information from Health Research Institute’s animal exposure study with your veterinarian. Let us know what they think.
You can also enroll your pet in the HRI study. We plan to submit it for peer-reviewed publication once enough data is collected. This may encourage other researchers to take a closer look.
Glyphosate Update: Dogs, Cats, Horses and People
We never thought to test cats and dogs!
When Health Research Institute started testing people for glyphosate, we just focused on people. But, a few pet owners called. They were concerned about exposure of their four-footed friends.
Our team tested a few cats and dogs, including some of our own – Ella, Shadow, Joonie and Thunder. All of them had glyphosate levels much higher than what we measured in people!
One dog had a level 200 times higher than the human average. It made us wonder, “where is all this glyphosate coming from?” To answer that question, we launched an animal exposure study parallel to the human study.
The graph below shows what we have seen so far. Cats are averaging 8 ppb which is 16 times the human average. Dogs are averaging 15.8 ppb which is 32 times the human average!
What is causing much higher glyphosate levels in animals?
You might think that exposure is due to walking outside, licking paws and grooming fur. Survey answers from study participants, however, suggest that exposure is far more dependent on pet food. Dogs that eat raw food have virtually no detectable glyphosate. Those that eat canned food have more. Those that eat kibble have higher levels. Those that eat grain-free kibble have the highest levels!
Why might grain-free kibble be the highest source of dogs’ exposure? The move by pet food makers away from corn and soy to fillers like oats, pea protein, chick peas and lentils is likely the reason.
As we have seen in the human study and by testing foods directly, crops like oats and legumes deliver the highest glyphosate levels to the consumer. This is because these crops are so often sprayed with glyphosate just before harvest, not to kill weeds but to kill the food crop to make it easier to process.
Horses eat a lot of oats and, increasingly, Roundup Ready® alfalfa, so this may explain their higher levels. We know less about why cats have higher levels because only a few cats have participated in the study so far.[/TD]
What are the consequences of chronic exposure by animals to glyphosate?
There is less research on the consequences of glyphosate on the health of pets than on the health of humans. Given the correlation between glyphosate and lymphoma in people, the question naturally arises, “Is there a connection between glyphosate and the dramatic rise in cancer rates among pets?”
Perhaps veterinary researchers will investigate and let us know. In the meantime, feel free to share information from Health Research Institute’s animal exposure study with your veterinarian. Let us know what they think.
You can also enroll your pet in the HRI study. We plan to submit it for peer-reviewed publication once enough data is collected. This may encourage other researchers to take a closer look.
