National Animal Supplement Council Announces Publication of Landmark Safety Study of Cannabidiol Products in Healthy Dogs
SUN CITY WEST, Ariz.—March 5, 2024—The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) today announced that Frontiers in Veterinary Science (Front. Vet. Sci.) has published results from the first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed safety study of cannabidiol products in healthy dogs. In the study, different cannabinoids were well tolerated in healthy male and female dogs when dosed for 90 consecutive days with a 14-day recovery period. Based on the results of this study, other published studies, and data from extensive post-market surveillance, hemp-derived cannabinoids are well tolerated in healthy dogs at a dose of 5mg/kg of body weight per day and do not pose significant risk to dogs in long-term use.
“These data demonstrate that different cannabidiols are safe for long-term use in healthy dogs when given at the dose studied,” said Bill Bookout, NASC President. “With safety studies, no matter how well controlled or meticulously defined, it is impossible to account for everything that can occur when a product is commercialized. That is why this safety study includes not only data from a well-designed study protocol, but also 10 years of post-market surveillance data from the NASC Adverse Event Reporting Database (NAERS®), which is the most advanced monitoring system in the world for these types of products given to companion animals. No other study that we are aware of is as comprehensive and includes both data sets.”
In the pivotal study, 32 healthy beagle dogs (16 males and 16 females) were randomized into four treatment groups and treated with either medium chain triglyceride oil as the control (placebo) or one of the following: broad spectrum cannabidiol (CBD), broad spectrum cannabidiol with cannabigerol (CBD + CBG), or broad spectrum cannabidiol with cannabidiolic acid (CBD + CBDA), at a dose of 5 milligrams total cannabinoids per kilogram of body weight per day. All animals completed the study. Study results show that CBD, CBD + CBG and CBD + CBDA at the ratios and doses utilized were well tolerated over the duration of the study period when healthy male and female beagles were dosed for 90 consecutive days.
The full article with study references and supplementary material can be viewed here.
“There are many people to thank for their support in the completion of this study, however, it is the contributions of the NASC Board of Directors and NASC members, along with retailers and veterinarians who helped propel this landmark study forward,” Bookout said. “Special thanks go to study co-authors Margitta Dziwenka, Kaiti Valm, and Jennifer Kovacs-Nolan for their invaluable assistance with what has been a lengthy, but extremely rewarding process. Thanks also to Joseph J. Wakshlag, DVM, PhD, of the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine for his support and encouragement along the way as we completed this instrumental study.”
