This recalled dog food can make pets and pet owners sick with salmonella and listeria
Bravo Packing has recalled its Performance Dog and Ground Beef frozen, raw pet food because it has the potential to be contaminated with salmonella and listeria monocytogenes.
The recall alert, issued Wednesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is nationwide. Bravo is headquartered in New Jersey and worked with a New York distributor.
Salmonella, listeria concerns
Salmonella can make animals sick if they eat a contaminated product and can also make their owners — meaning, us humans — sick, too.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, salmonella bacteria cause about 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations and 420 deaths in the United States every year. Food is the source for most of these illnesses.
Listeria can cause sometimes fatal infections in young children, seniors 65 and older, and those with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include high fever, server headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Listeria can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women. An estimated 1,600 people get listeriosis each year and about 260 die, according to the CDC.
Pets with salmonella infections can become lethargic, get diarrhea (sometimes bloody), fever and vomiting. Some pets will have decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Pets exposed to contaminated food can be infected without showing symptoms.
The FDA recommends that if your dog ate Bravo’s Ground Beef and Performance Dog and has these symptoms you should tell your veterinarian. Infected animals, even without showing symptoms, can shed salmonella through their feces and saliva and spread pathogens into the home. Given that possibility, people should wash their hands after handling the product.
No human or animal illnesses have been reported to date related to this recall.
What to look for
Performance Dog and Ground Beef both come frozen in 2-pound and 5-pound plastic sleeves.
If you have an Ground Beef or Performance Dog package, throw it away, the FDA suggests. Consumers with questions can contact Bravo Packing Inc. at 856-299-1044, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday, Eastern time.
