You're right, the first article is by a Hill's scientist. Good looking out
. It doesn't mean that the article is invalid, but it IS something to keep in mind. Fortunately, the article is mainly factually based and is about pet food manufacturing techniques, and the rules and regulations on pet food labeling and the AAFCO feeding trials. They aren't pushing a particular product--they are just writing an informative article that applies to all commercial dog foods--canned and dry.
The second article is a little more interesting. The ELISA test that is mentioned in the abstract is a means of detecting the protein source in dog foods by using antibodies to the protein. The authors found that the ELISA test for poultry protein was unreliable, so they couldn't check the foods to see if they actually contained poultry. However, the beef and soy ELISA tests ARE reliable, so they could test for those ingredients. The results were as follows: Three out of four venison limited ingredient dog foods that were NOT supposed to contain soy protein actually DID contain soy protein that was not on the label. Those foods are:
Eukanuba Naturally Wild New Zealand Venison & Potato, The Iams Company. Columbus, OH, USA.
Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Pet Foods, L.I.D., Limit Ingredient Diet Sweet Potato & Venison, Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Pet Foods, Pacoima, CA, USA.
Nature’s Variety Prairie New Zealand Venison Meal & Millet Medley, Nature’s Variety. Lincoln, NE, USA.
One of the four venison limited ingredient dog foods contained beef protein that was not on the label:
Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Pet Foods, L.I.D., Limit Ingredient Diet Sweet Potato & Venison, Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Pet Foods, Pacoima, CA, USA.
The only venison limited ingredient dog food that contained no beef and soy was:
Wellness Simple Food Solutions Rice & Venison, Old Mother Hubbard. Chelmsford, MA, USA
Keep in mind that they only tested these four foods for soy and beef contamination, and couldn't test for poultry.
The conclusion is:
In conclusion, three of the four OTC venison diets selected in this study contained at least one common food antigen, as detected by ELISA testing and are not suitable for diagnostic elimination trials. It is not known what protein concentration, size or structure is required to elicit an immunological reaction in a food allergic dog. Although, the exact mechanism of food allergies in dogs is still speculative, the immunological basis dictates the necessity to use diets with novel or hydrolyzed sources of proteins from companies with the highest quality controls, monitoring and assurances possible when conducting a diagnostic elimination trial.
In layman's terms, three of the four limited ingredient foods are not suitable for diagnostic elimination diets. The authors don't know how much contamination is needed to cause an allergic reaction in a dog that is allergic to the contaminating ingredient. The authors emphasize that if you are using commercial food for an elimination diet, you need to be sure that the company has the highest quality controls, monitoring, and assurances. The only food that passed the limited testing that they did was Wellness Simple Food Solutions Rice & Venison.
If you want a PDF copy of the whole article, PM me your email address and I'll email it to you.