Press Release: Iowa Action Threatens Welfare Of Companion Animals And Horses
Popular Veterinarian Recommended Supplements to be Taken Off the Market; Stakeholders Nationwide Urged to Speak Out
NOTE: This is an announcement released today (10/20/03) from the National Animal Supplement Council.

Contact:
Gina Kazimir
National Animal Supplement Council
410-420-8679 / 410-459-8765

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2003

(Valley Center, Calif.) -- If you use a supplement for your dog, cat, horse or other companion animal in the state of Iowa, the products you depend on will soon be removed from sale in Iowa.

If the Iowa Department of Agriculture and program assistant Lori Smith get their way, giving glucosamine to your older dog or a probiotic paste to your horse will be illegal in Iowa after Dec. 1, 2003. That's the date Smith has decreed a stop-sale for any feed products containing "label discrepancies or unapproved feed additives." And in the state of Iowa, ANYTHING not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA/CVM) is considered a feed, so it's goodbye to a whole range of dietary supplements that people and their pets commonly use and have come to depend on.

"This stop-sale action is absurd because everyone loses; the industry, the state, consumers, animals; everyone," exclaims Bill Bookout, president of the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC). "This is a significant abuse of regulatory authority with no basis in scientific fact.

Animal supplements cannot possibly be approved as drugs under the FDA definition, but they are certainly not feed. The current regulatory system only recognizes a drug or a feed, so supplements are left in limbo at best or at worst subject to capricious regulations."

One problem is that there is no nationally recognized set of standards for animal supplements. The state feed control officials currently regulate supplements as animal feeds. The American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) is a non-regulatory body that makes recommendations for approval of feed ingredients; however, in the absence of a nationally established code or policy each state can decide rules on its own, which leads to situations like the one in Iowa.

"A state can decide it won't allow products containing unrecognized ingredients like glucosamine to be sold," Bookout explains. "Even though glucosamine is a widely accepted supplement for humans and frequently recommended by physicians and veterinarians, it is considered an 'unapproved ingredient' by AAFCO and the FDA for animal feed."

It is important to note that most state feed officials recognize the importance of the issue to the millions of animal owners who use animal supplements and are working cooperatively with the NASC to identify and implement solutions without affecting the supply of products.

"Our industry knows the importance of working with the regulators to identify fair and reasonable pathways. Animals and consumers are really the ones that will be hurt the most by actions like Iowa has announced," added Bookout.

The NASC submitted an ingredient definition for two popular ingredients, glucosamine and MSM. In response, the FDA/CVM chose not to approve glucosamine as an animal feed or feed additive. And after nine months, there has been no response to the submission for MSM, leaving both of these popular supplements in regulatory limbo.

So why is the animal supplement industry being targeted? "There is no category for animal supplements, but there is for human supplements; it's that simple," says Bookout.

Since its formation in 2001 (in response to another challenge to remove supplements from the market), NASC has attempted to work within the regulatory framework to ensure that consumers have access to dietary supplements for their animals. Although the FDA and AAFCO representatives in some states have been receptive, the issue of how to regulate supplements remains uncertain. "NASC and its members have tried to work within the existing framework of regulations," says Bookout. "I believe that no one wants to deny animal owners access to supplements they feel might be beneficial, particularly when the majority of veterinarians recommend supplements that contain 'unrecognized' ingredients. But that's exactly what is happening in Iowa. The time has come for something to change. You can't regulate a multi-billion dollar national industry with potentially 50 individual sets of rules. It's an impossible way to do business. We need a new definition or national policy established that acknowledges supplements for non-human food chain animals as a unique category of products that are neither drugs nor feed. It exists for human dietary supplements - shouldn't our companion animals have the same consideration?"

The FDA may not be able to create such a category on its own without legislative action, which is why the NASC is urging concerned animal owners across the country to get involved in protecting their access to supplements by contacting their state officials. For sample scripts and letters, information on how to contact your state's legislators and updates on the proposed ban on supplements in Iowa,visit the NASC Web site at www.nasc.cc.

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