The effect of dietary corn oil and fish oil supplementation in dogs with naturally occurring gingivitis.

Abstract

The aim of this randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study was to evaluate if downregulation of the inflammatory response due to ingestion of high levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) can slow down gingivitis development, and thus delay the progression of periodontal disease (PD) in dogs. To this aim, 44 client-owned adult dogs (>1 and <8years old) with naturally occurring PD (stages 1 and 2) were submitted to a plaque, gingivitis and calculus scoring followed by a dental cleaning procedure and collection of blood samples. The animals were then fed a canine adult maintenance diet, supplemented with either corn oil (0.00g EPA and 0.00g DHA) or fish oil (1.53g EPA and 0.86g DHA, both per 1,000kcal ME) over the following 5months. At the end of this period, the PD scoring and the blood sampling were repeated. The animals consuming fish oil had higher plasma levels of the longer chain (C≥20) omega 3 fatty acids (p<0.01) and similar plasma levels of alpha-linolenic acid (p=0.53), omega 6 fatty acids (p>0.63) and C reactive protein (p=0.28) then the ones consuming corn oil. There were no differences between fish oil and corn oil diet supplementation on plaque (18.2 vs. 17.8, p=0.78), calculus (10.1 vs. 11.5, p=0.18) or gingivitis (19.3 vs. 19.0, p=0.77) indexes. The authors conclude that supplementation with EPA+DHA does not slow down progression of PD in dogs.