With 25 dogs now dead in Victoria after eating contaminated dog food, we’ve been getting lots of emails from concerned pet parents enquiring about the quality and safety of our food.

Investigators now think that contaminated horse meat is the cause of the Victorian Disaster. The horses in question consumed the native plant Indigofera which contains a toxin called indospicine which can be deadly to dogs.

Before we jump into the current situation, I’d like to point out that this plant is not a new issue. There are reports from 2011 of Indigofera causing toxicity in dogs via contaminated camel meat. We actually looked at making a camel recipe some years ago, but in our research came across the Indigofera toxicity issue. The RSPCA recommendation was to not feed dogs camel meat.

Hence, no camel recipe!

The current situation appears to be caused by contaminated horse meat, processed at a knackery and then somehow mixed into other proteins like beef and kangaroo.

“PrimeSafe and Agriculture Victoria are now aware of a consignment of horses that came to Victoria to be processed for pet meat from the Northern Territory where the Indigofera plant that contains indospicine is known to grow.”

The offical government recommendation is to “not feed their pet any fresh or frozen raw pet meat sourced from Maffra District Knackery between 31 May and 3 July”.

This meat comes from a knackery, which is a not fit or human consumption meat processor. A knackery is not subject to the same safety standards or regulation as a human quality abattoir.

As I commented on Facebook at the time, we do not recommend feeding your dog food that is not fit for human consumption. It is far too easy to cut corners - like putting feral horse meat in a product labelled “beef”, that turned out to be contaminated. Dodgy.

In terms of other animals eating Indigofera, I do not believe it poses a significant risk. According to Murdoch University veterinary pathologist Dr Louise FitzGerald indospicine is found in plants in Australia's arid regions. It is consumed by feral horses, cows and camels, and as far as I can tell all cases of indospicine are related to these animals.

There is no recorded data of kangaroo or buffalo eating Indigofera, and no cases of kangaroo or buffalo indospicine toxicity. Based on this information and their widespread use in Australian dog food, I believe that our kangaroo and buffalo recipes are safe to feed your dog. We will continue to feed Nelly all of our recipes.

Of course, there are no guarantees in life. If you are concerned about indospicine toxicity then I would suggest avoiding all wild game for your dog. Our Beef & Chicken and Lamb recipes both use quality farmed animals so pose no indospicine risk.

Going forward, be sure to avoid feeding your dog camel or horse. And I would recommend never feeding your dog meat sourced from a knackery.