Raw meat diet could combat cheetah health problem

A DIET of raw meat and carcasses over commercially prepared meals could combat debilitating gastrointestinal diseases that affect many captive cheetahs.

Over 95% of captive cheetahs in North America and South Africa and 55% in Europe are known to suffer from gastritis – a type of gastrointestinal disease that causes inflammation of the stomach lining; vomiting; diarrhoea and weight loss.

The problem is extremely rare among free-ranging cheetahs.

In the biggest-ever international survey of its kind, researchers gathered information on diet and health for 184 cheetahs in 19 countries, representing 12% of the world’s captive cheetah population.

The team discovered fewer instances of vomiting and diarrhoea in cheetahs whose diet was based on carcasses, compared with animals that were fed commercially prepared meals, which typically include minced meat such as horse or beef, with added vitamins and minerals.

And “firm and dry faeces” – associated with a normal, healthy gut in cheetahs – was most commonly found in animals fed on a raw meat diet.

Details of the findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“The key finding was that we did identify dietary factors… as increasing the risk of gastrointestinal diseases in captive cheetahs,” said research team member Katherine Whitehouse-Tedd, a visiting fellow at the School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences at Nottingham Trent University, UK.

“From an overall health and welfare perspective, [gastritis] is debilitating. It’s something that we really need to address.”

She added: “We haven’t proven that commercially prepared diets cause gastrointestinal disease.

“What we’ve done is proven that raw meat and long bones and ribs – carcass components – actually provide a level of protection, so they decrease the odds of getting gastritis.”

– www.bbc.com

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