The pet food industry continues to grow in both developed and developing countries and competes with the human food industry for high value ingredients, such as meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables. This growth has been spawned by the increasing appreciation of the value of pets to human health and well being through both physical and emotional effects. Holistically, these necessitate a deeper understanding of nutrient requirements, ingredient evaluation, food processing, and the effects of diet on health, metabolism, and behavior of cats and dogs of all ages, breeds, and lifestyles.

We invite investigators to submit original research and review articles that will contribute to the development of dog and cat foods and nutritional strategies that improve the health of the animal, enhance the human-bond, or assist in the management of metabolic disorders.

We are particularly interested in articles that measure nutrient requirements and discuss ingredient quality and species specific metabolic benefit of ingredients, the role of ingredients and nutraceuticals in therapeutic diets that produce a positive clinical outcome, and nutrition or nutritional management that results in improvements in cat/dog behavior and potentially an improvement in the human-animal relationship.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Macro and micro nutrient metabolism in the domestic cat or dog and potentially breed specific differences in metabolism
• Macro and micro nutrient requirement studies
• Ingredient quality and the effects of processing on ingredient quality
• Nutrition and/or nutritional management of health, including metabolic disorders
• The role of nutrition, feeding strategies, and/or environmental factors in the human-animal bond