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Dog Food Containing Avocado
I noticed your avocado information in the recent issue of ASPCA News Alert. Do you have any information about the safety of avocado in pet food?
—Nicole K.
Good question, Nicole. As you read in News Alert, avocado leaves, fruit, seeds and bark contain a toxic principle known as Persin. The Guatemalan variety, a common one found in stores, appears to be the most problematic. Other strains of avocado can have different degrees of toxic potential.
The safety profile of foods and other products formulated with avocado is a difficult question for us to answer definitively, because we do not know specifically how avocados are processed for these foods, what types of avocados are used, or what minimum dose of the toxic principle results in clinical effects. Therefore, we have refrained from making an overall assessment of the safety or toxicity of products that contain avocado.
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