The pet food industry has witnessed a growing awareness among pet owners regarding what they feed their pets, reflecting their concern for personal health. Maximizing their pets’ health and well-being has become a top priority.
Following the human health trend, supplements are becoming increasingly popular for pets, including probiotics. Probiotics have been shown to support gut microbiomes and promote weight loss in obese dogs.
Beyond overall gut health, probiotics offer numerous other benefits that pet owners are eager to maximize in their pets’ lives.
“They are moving beyond digestive benefits into more unique probiotic applications like mental health, dental health, immunity, and even urinary and weight management,” said Lidiia Alaverdova, head of global marketing, animal and plant health and nutrition at Chr. Hansen.
Alaverdova will be presenting at Petfood Forum Europe 2024, providing a deeper understanding of the usage, drivers, and current beliefs of pet owners regarding probiotics and the latest trends in human health. She will also share insights from the company’s latest market research in the U.S., as well as findings from French and Chinese studies. This provides a solid rationale for why probiotics as a functional ingredient remain a strategic approach to meeting the needs of pet owners.
The research explains how pet companies can improve communication about probiotics to maximize value.
Probiotics and Pet Mental Health
Like humans, stress can cause anxiety in pets and lead to other issues with gastrointestinal, immune, and urinary tract health in cats. Anxiety in dogs can manifest in behaviors such as excessive licking, barking, shaking, pacing, and destructive actions.
In a stress-related behavioral study, the Purina Institute states that the gut and brain have a unique relationship. “Research has shown that the gut microbiome influences the development of the nervous system, brain biochemistry (e.g., neurotransmitter production), response to stressors, and behavior,” according to the study.
From their research and study, Purina concluded that dogs supplemented with a probiotic containing the Bifidobacterium longum NCC3001 (BL999) strain showed improvement in anxiety-related behaviors.
Probiotics for Other Pet Health Conditions
In addition to gut health, stress, and anxiety, probiotics may benefit other health-related conditions such as allergies, dental health, coat quality, diarrhea, immune disorders, intestinal inflammation, irritable bowel syndrome, and liver disease.
