BONEZONE® Bone Science Blog Series - Ground Exposure and Controlled Chewing - Pt 4 of 6

Article 4 - Raw Bones and Bacteria: Separating Fact From Fear

Conversations about raw bones often become extreme very quickly.

One side acts as though raw chews are completely natural and therefore automatically fine. The other side talks as though every raw bone is a medical emergency waiting to happen.

As usual, the truth sits somewhere in the middle.

Raw animal products are not sterile. That is not an opinion. It is well established in food safety and veterinary literature. Bacteria such as Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes have been identified in raw pet food products, and the FDA has repeatedly warned that raw pet foods may pose risks to both pets and the humans handling them.

That does not mean every raw chew will cause illness.

But it does mean raw chews deserve the same kind of practical hygiene thinking we would apply to any uncooked animal-derived product.

And this is where many dog owners unintentionally become inconsistent.

They will carefully store the chew, handle it with some care, maybe even wash their hands afterward - then place the chew straight onto the ground and allow it to remain there for an extended period while the dog mouths, licks and rolls it around.

That makes little sense.

If a raw chew already requires sensible handling, adding repeated contact with dirt, debris and uncontrolled outdoor surfaces is not an upgrade.

BoneZone was never designed as a food safety device in the medical sense. It does not disinfect the chew or remove bacteria already present on it. But it does make one obvious improvement:

it keeps the chew from becoming a ground-contact object for the entire session.

That matters because hygiene is often about reduction, not perfection.

You may not be able to eliminate every microorganism associated with a raw chew, but you can reduce unnecessary environmental contact. You can reduce where that chew travels. You can reduce how often it ends up in the dirt. And you can make the whole activity easier to supervise and manage.

That is a much more rational and believable benefit than claiming BoneZone somehow makes raw bones "safe".

It does not.

It just makes the chewing setup more controlled.

And when dealing with raw animal products, control is not a small thing.

References

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Raw Pet Food Diets can be Dangerous to You and Your Pet.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). CVM Issues Assignment to Collect Samples of Raw Foods for Dogs or Cats in Interstate Commerce.
• Finley R, Reid-Smith R, Ribble C, et al. The occurrence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonellae isolated from commercially available canine raw food diets in three Canadian cities. Canadian Veterinary Journal. 2008.