Limiting the amount of copper in dog food? Experts don’t believe so

The topic was discussed a couple of weeks ago in an AAFCO panel with members from the entity’s Pet Food Committee and the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA). The panel reconsidered current guidelines for copper content in commercial dog food.

The American Veterinary Medical Association published an article by Dr. Sharon Center in 2022 warning that the copper contents of many commercial dog foods “are greater than the biologic requirement of dogs and exceed the tolerance limit for some of them.”

Taking that into consideration, an expert panel formed in 2022 met 4 times during the year to review the content of copper in dog food.

The suggestions made in the article to restrict the amount of copper in dog foods were met with opposition from most of the panel. Experts also rejected decreasing the amount of copper to less than 3.6 mg Cu/kg as recommended by the National Academies of Sciences’ 2006 Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats Expert Subcommittee.

Copper deficiencies

The AAFCO panel argued that this was the minimum amount required for any life stage of a dog. If reduced, it would run the risk of developing a copper deficiency, especially in gestating and lactating female dogs.

The experts grappled with setting a maximum amount of copper in the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles. They noted that there is “insufficient empirical data to establish a safe upper limit or maximum tolerable level in normal dogs.”

“Setting any value for a maximum amount of copper in complete diets for dogs would simply be an arbitrary decision, not based on science.”

For these reasons, most of the panel did not believe it was possible to set a determined amount of copper in complete diets for dogs until objective scientific data was made available. The panel also concluded that “capriciously” setting a value as a maximum for copper implies that diets containing more than the upper limit are unsafe without being proven true.

The minimum inclusion levels recommended by AAFCO are 7.3 parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per liter (total diet) for adult dogs and 12.4 ppm for growth, reproduction periods, or all life stages.