? ? Purina "Forti Flora" ? ?
 

I was just reading about Purina's "Forti Flora. and it leaves me wondering how safe it actually is.

It has ONE so-called probiotic, which is Enterococcus faecium.
This bacteria has some negative findings.

Here is the first line from the abstract :
"The characteristics of Enterococcus faecium have led to concern regarding the safety of probiotics that contain this bacterium. The results of an in vitro filter mating assay indicate that a probiotic E. faecium strain might be a potential recipient of vancomycin resistance genes."

Here's the actual link to the whole article : http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/9/1384.full

So, IMO, if your dog takes Forti Flora, poops, licks it's butt then gives you a kiss, you might be asking for trouble.


.

Don't get too scared by buzzwords. The article linked implies that Enterococcus Faeciem is susceptible to accepting vancomycin resistance. What this means: E. Faeciem, in itself, is not antibiotic resistant by nature, but it is susceptible to mutation in the right environ.

Now, so what if it does mutate to become a Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci? Well, not much happens. VRE's are often asymptomatic in humans, and frankly, there are fairly specific uses for Vancomycin in modern medicine that really don't apply for most folks. AND, there are known treatment paradigms for VRE's if they do produce symptoms.

Further, some of the data mentioned in the article suggests that even folks (Danish study) that were taking these E. Faeciem probiotic supplements did not develop notable increases in VRE number, even if they were simultaneously administered vancomycin (theoretically conditioning the E. Faec. to become VRE). The study also only implies the risk for resistance development in vitro. It's parallel abductive reasoning at best, not an inclusive inductive proof. This series of studies don't prove any propagation of E. Faeciem to mutate either in Purina's production facility, in your dog, or in the human body - only in lab environments, followed by speculation that the mutation in living creatures "cannot be ruled out" based on that study.

And keep in mind - the probiotics aren't necessarily meant to "infect" your dog with something new, but rather to bolster the intestinal bacteria and out compete some of the other less-than-desirable intestinal inhabitants. It's quite possible that your dog, when healthy, has a higher VRE transmission potential than they would when being supplemented.

So I'd personally say that VRE's are not one of my major concerns when I consider getting sloppy seconds after my dog licks his @ss. There are plenty of reasons that I don't want dogschitt in my mouth, but concern of VRE transmission due to using Fortiflora isn't one of them.