Each month the Petfood Industry E-newsletter will bring you the latest market data available from several different sources including Euromonitor, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) and ACNielsen.

Today's market research data chart comes to you from: ACNielsen

Strong growth potential for dog food in Brazil
Sales of dog food in Brazil are expected to grow by 7% in value terms between 2005-2010 to reach over R$5.5 billion, according to a new report from Euromonitor International— Pet Food and Pet Care Products in Brazil. Dry dog food will continue to drive sales, accounting for 96% of dog food value by 2010.

Wet dog food is expected to remain less popular than dry dog food, but its growth will still be noteworthy thanks to packaging innovations—especially the introduction of more easy-open cans—and to the arrival of new players. Moreover, due to campaigns that encourage owners to replace homemade food with prepared food, wet dog food may still play an important role in the market. After all, specialists are unanimous in affirming that replacement should not be made abruptly. They all say that owners should mix homemade food with wet dog food at the beginning, and only later should they stop feeding their pets with homemade food.

Dog treats and mixers have considerable growth potential in the Brazilian market, as consumers become increasingly familiar with the benefits of such products, particularly those promising nutritional and health improvements. In addition, the number of new product developments will attest to the growing popularity of such products. Euromonitor International forecasts that sales of dog treats and mixers will reach R$95 million by 2010.

Click here for more information about petfood and pet care reports from Euromonitor International and to buy reports online.

E-news

US online ad spending figures released for first half of 2006
According to the latest figures and reports by emarketer.com, US online advertising revenues for the first six months of 2006 were approximately US$7.9 billion—a 37% increase over the first half of 2005. In addition, Internet advertising revenues totaled nearly US$4.1 billion for the second quarter of 2006, representing a 36% increase over the same period in 2005 and a 5.5% increase over the first quarter of 2006. Paid search advertising, accounting for 40% of online ad revenues, continued to be the most popular online ad format, followed by display and classified advertising.

The future of online ad spending
eMarketer projects online ad spending growth rates of 26.8% and 15.1%, respectively, in 2006 and 2007. Translated to dollars, this year's growth rate equals US$15.9 billion. Even as spending growth subsides, the continued positive gains will push US online ad spending over US$21 billion in two years and past the US$25 billion mark by the end of 2010. In the US , for the foreseeable future at least, online ad spending will continue to carry overall advertising spending—making up for, or nearly so, shortfalls in other media.

• Ad spending will shift from other media, most notably broadcast television and newspapers, to the Internet.
• Larger Internet ad budgets will emerge in general as companies both grow more accustomed to various online ad formats and increasingly seek the audience found on the Web.
• Higher prices for both branding ads (video and plain display) and direct response vehicles (mainly paid search).
• Branding objectives becoming increasingly relevant online, which will lead more marketers who have spent little for Internet advertising to devote larger budget shares to various interactive formats, especially video.
• The continued small shares many large marketers budget for Internet advertising, which need to budge by only a few percentage points to create relatively large gains for this advertising medium.

Product news

Pallet dispenser
A-B-C Packaging has introduced the Model 601 Pallet Dispenser with a side-clamp design that grips and lifts the entire stack to allow the bottom pallet to feed independently from the stack to the palletizing station. This design allows the dispenser to run pallets with protruding nails or loose boards, while minimizing further pallet damage and eliminating handling concerns during warehousing and shipping. The side-clamp design is a superior handling method, compared to traditional hydraulic dispensers that use a pusher ram to strip pallets from the bottom of the stack—which can cause additional damage to imperfect pallets.

Natural, edible ingredients
ADF reminds petfood and treat manufacturers that in addition to the finest, most nutritious petfood ingredients, it also can supply edible all-natural ingredients from food-grade, USDA-inspected facilities. These USDA-approved poultry products include meat, broth and shelf-stable fat and broth/fat combination dehydrated powders. In addition to an all-natural designation, these products also use all-natural methods of preservation to help supply a clean label.

For edible, natural ingredients, ADF can supply meat, broth, fat or a broth/fat combination product. The shelf-stable fat is liquid and the broth and other combination fat/broth ingredients are sold dry. The liquid shelf-stable fat is generally topically applied to kibble. The dry broth and broth/fat combination products help conserve energy for easy and economical shipment and transportation. In addition, all ADF powders flow easily out of the container into any processing situation.

Research notes

Dietary modification for treatment of feline kidney disease
This study was conducted in order to determine whether a renal diet modified in protein, phosphorus, sodium and lipid content was superior to an adult maintenance diet in minimizing uremic episodes and mortality rate in cats with stage 2 or 3 chronic kidney disease (CKD). A double-masked, randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted on 45 client-owned cats with spontaneous stage 2 or 3 CKD.

Cats were randomly assigned to an adult maintenance diet (n = 23 cats) or a renal diet (22) and evaluated tri-monthly for up to 24 months. Efficacy of the renal diet, compared with the maintenance diet, in minimizing uremia, renal-related deaths and all causes of death were evaluated. Serum urea nitrogen concentrations were significantly lower and blood bicarbonate concentrations were significantly higher in the renal diet group at baseline and during the 12- and 24-month intervals. Significant differences were not detected in body weight; Hct; urine protein-to-creatine; and parathyroid hormone concentrations. A significantly greater percentage of cats fed the maintenance diet had uremic episodes (26%), compared with cats fed the renal diet (0%). A significant reduction in renal-related deaths, but not all causes of death were detected in cats fed the renal diet.

The renal diet evaluated in this study was found to be superior to an adult maintenance diet in minimizing uremic episodes and renal-related deaths in cats with spontaneous stage 2 or 3 CKD.

Source: Ross, S.J., et al., 2006. Clinical evaluation of dietary modification for treatment of spontaneous chronic kidney disease in cats. JAVMA 229:949-957.

Protein profiling or organic stone matrix and urine
Two-thirds of the organic matrix in urinary stones consists of proteins. Their relationship to calculogenesis remains controversial with regard to their effect as inhibitors or promoters during stone formation. The purpose of the present study was to determine the differences in peptide and protein pattern between the urine of stone formers ( n = 23) and control dogs ( n = 12), as well as between organic matrix of different urinary stones (struvite n = 11, calcium oxalate n = 8, uric acid n = 4) using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Specific differences in protein and peptide profiles were found in the organic matrix of different mineral compositions. Characteristic differences were also found in urinary peptide and protein pattern, especially in molecular masses below 20 kDa between affected and healthy dogs. Based on the obtained molecular masses, they were in some cases tentatively identified as proteins that are known to be involved in stone formation in humans. The study shows that in dogs, specific-urinary peptides and proteins might be associated with urolithiasis. It indicates the importance to further characterize those proteins for possible diagnostic purposes in prognosis and therapy.

Source: Forterre, S., et al., 2006. Protein profiling or organic stone matrix and urine from dogs with urolithiasis. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 90(5-6):192-199.

Positions available

Our help wanted listings aim to inform petfood industry professionals about employment opportunities worldwide. Contact gstadel@wattnet.net for more information on placing a listing in upcoming issues.

Help wanted: Various positions available
Openings for sales and marketing personnel, nutritionists, processing experts. Rapidly-growing national leader in uncompromised, science-based superpremium natural petfoods, clinical diets and supplements. Send resume to: Wysong Corporation, Attn: Cathy Adams, 7550 Eastman Ave., Midland, MI 48642 USA, Fax: +1.989.631.8801, E-mail: cadams21212@aol.com.

References

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