A new study has claimed that a vegan diet can be healthier for dogs than a traditional meat-based one.

Created by academics at the University of Winchester it was co-authored by Andrew Knight, a qualified vet and Visiting Lecturer in Animal Welfare, Hazel Brown, Associate Dean of the University’s Faculty of Health and Wellbeing and Alexander Bauer of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

The process of making pet food uses around 9% of the world's livestock, and there have been discussions on how to reduce the strain this can cause.

A previous study by Professor Knight showed the environmental benefits of vegan pet diets, but the question remained on whether this sort of diet would be healthy for dogs.

Dogs are biologically omnivores and many companies now produce vegan dog food using plant, mineral and synthetic ingredients to supply all necessary nutrients.

The University of Winchester website adds: "To date 10 scientific studies have demonstrated good health outcomes in dogs fed vegan or vegetarian diets, and the British Veterinary Association had endorsed nutritionally-sound vegan dog diets.

"Yet no studies had calculated the size of the health benefits that might occur for average dogs, after controlling for age, sex, neutering status, breed size and exercise level – all factors that can affect dog health."

The new study is the first published to control for all of these factors.

What did the results of the study show?

After analysing health outcomes for 2,536 dogs, including 336 fed a vegan diet for at least one year, the study found decreases in the occurrences of seven general indicators of illness.

Dogs fed vegan diets were less likely to need medication, medical diets or unusually high numbers of veterinary visits.

Additionally, they were more likely to be assessed as healthy by dog owners and their vet, had lower rates of illness, and had fewer cases of health disorders when they were unwell.

Reductions ranged from 14 – 51% for average dogs, compared to dogs fed conventional meat-based diets.

Meanwhile, the odds of suffering from six specific health disorders fell by between 50 and 61% compared to dogs fed conventional meat.

This included problems with weight, ears, and the musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal system ­– which can cause conditions such as lameness and diarrhoea.

Professor Knight said: “Dogs fed vegan diets clearly had the best health outcomes in this very large-scale study, and these results are consistent with prior studies in this field.

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“Nutritionally-sound vegan diets offer extremely large environmental benefits, so this is very good news for dog owners who want to protect the environment whilst also maximising their dogs’ health. However, care should always be taken to ensure diets are nutritionally-sound, by checking package labelling and purchasing from reputable pet food companies.”

Hazel Brown said: “I am not a dog owner but if I were this research would make me seriously consider a vegan diet for the health of my pet.

"Certainly, the statistics seem to disprove the established preconceptions that meat is the best food for dogs.”