Living in the ‘information age’ gives us opportunies to care and share information about our pets unlike anything in the past. We have tools at our fingertips to help us better serve our loyal critters and share information about personal experiences. A few months ago, the Food and Drug Adminstration and the National Institutes of Health launched a newWebsite designed to inprove food and drug safety for people and their pets. When fully developed, it will be a one-stop site for pet owners and professionals and the public to report problems or contamination of food and drugs.

The Safety Reporting Portal makes it easy for pet owners to report adverse reactions their animal may have encountered with food or medication. It also gives drug manufacturers the opportunity to instantly report issues that become apparent during quality checks performed during the making of medication for pets. The site is an excellent mechanism for the reporting of pre and post-market safety data to the federal goverment.

The site is a great user-friendly tool aimed to provide the public with reports from the food industry, food producers and drug manufacturers to keep them and their pets healthy and happy. It is a groundbreaking effort which the FDA states is taking the first step toward an electronic reporting system that will allow consumers and professionals to file a single report to multiple agencies. Owners and Veterinarians can report problems with pet foods and their pet treats and animal-drug manufacturers can report adverse events related to their products.

The site is remarkable and is currently being expanded to include other types of clinical trials and safety problems from products regulated by a number of federal agencies. It also offers ways for biomedical researchers involved in human gene transfer trials to report adverse events. In the future, the system will cover other types of clinical trials and safety problems arising from products regulated by several other federal agencies. It is a great one-stop shop that can provide useful news and information that make for a healthier pet and owner!