Greenies, a widely recognized brand in pet dental care and oral medication delivery, will soon be more widely accessible to veterinary practices following a recently announced partnership between epiq Animal Health and Mars Petcare US, Inc.

Under the agreement, Greenies products, which include Greenies Dental Treats and Greenies Pill Pockets, will no longer be distributed exclusively through a single distributor. Instead, the products will be available through distributors across the animal health industry, including epiq.

Mars Petcare said it plans to “accelerate performance through reliability and everyday instruments to drive profitable growth in the veterinary channel.”

The company did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

Greenies is one of several brands within Mars Petcare’s portfolio, which spans pet nutrition, preventive care, diagnostics, and veterinary services. Mars Petcare describes itself as a “pet care” company and noted that its portfolio is designed to serve the health and nutrition needs of pets globally.

The company operates as part of Mars, Incorporated, a family-owned business with more than a century of history.

Mars Petcare’s operations include nearly 50 brands across pet food, treats, and veterinary services, as well as the Waltham Petcare Science Institute, which focuses on research in pet nutrition and health. The company also maintains an international network of veterinary hospitals and diagnostic services, including Banfield, BluePearl, VCA, AniCura, Linnaeus, and Antech, among others.

epiq Animal Health is a “value-added distributor and solutions provider” for manufacturers in the animal health industry. According to the company, its work focuses on creating efficiencies across the supply chain, supporting product management, and delivering go-to-market strategies. epiq says it uses industry insights and relationships to identify distribution pathways for animal health products.

According to epiq, the partnership with Mars Petcare aligns with its mission to help animal health manufacturers and distributors bring products and innovations to veterinary professionals and pet owners.

Greenies products are commonly marketed for teeth cleaning support and medication administration in cats and dogs. Greenies Pill Pockets specifically are moldable treats with a built-in pouch designed for hiding pills during administration. The partnership announcement did not include whether there would be any changes to product formulations, labeling, and did not specify whether additional Greenies products may be added to epiq’s distribution portfolio in the future.

epiq Animal Health and Mars Petcare US, Inc. Enter into a Strategic Distribution Agreement. News release. epiq Animal Health. February 2, 2026. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/news-releases/epiq-animal-health-and-mars-petcare-us-inc-enter-into-a-strategic-distribution-agreement-302675774.html

Articles

Following a partnership between epiq Animal Health and Mars Petcare US, Inc, Greenies Dental Treats and Greenies Pill Pockets will no longer be distributed exclusively through a single distributor. 

Greenies to be distributed more widely under epiq agreement

On this week’s episode of the Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA,  interviews Clare T. Walker, DVM, a veterinarian and suspense author, about her dual career in veterinary medicine and fiction writing. Claire shares her background studying animal science and veterinary medicine at the University of Illinois, her work as a relief veterinarian, and her lifelong parallel passion for creative writing. 

Throughout the episode, Walker discusses her veterinary medical thriller “The Keys of Death”, set in Urbana-Champaign and rooted in real veterinary settings and experiences, as well as her work-in-progress “Lonely River,” which follows a veterinarian caught in a political scandal and delves deeply into veterinary mental health, and more.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity

 So you're practicing doing relief work, and then you have these ideas, plus you're writing, like, how do you manage your time?

Mostly, I have to be honest, Adam, I don't manage my time very well, because both veterinary practice, as you know, is very demanding, mentally and physically, and emotionally and just intellectually. You're drained at the end of a day, right? And then trying to do creative work that's interesting and really good is that's also very draining. So you have to kind of have a work-life balance, and also a work-work balance.

I have to kind of pick how much of each thing you can do. So, probably that's why I'm not as prolific an author as I would like to be, because I got to eat, right? Got to work. I do my best and I try to spare hours here and there. And as a relief, that's nice, actually, because I can kind of set my own schedule, right?

And it's got to be nice that you have this incredible creative outlet. I always feel that when the more I chat with our profession, we're very creative in so many different facets and with this outlet that you're doing, I mean, my gosh. I mean, sometimes your brain must be your worst enemy because you have so many great ideas, but it's a great way of channeling that creativity and putting it on paper.

Yeah. It's funny Adam, sometimes I'll find myself sort of walking around the house thinking, okay what can I do? What should I work on? And I almost, sort of, it's really hard to rein myself in and go, ‘Okay, I'm gonna sit down and do this, draw a box around my time,’ and say, ‘I'm gonna work on this at this moment and that.’ But you have to make yourself do it. Otherwise  your talent, if you have it, and your ideas just sort of blow up, or just blow away in the dust of life.

What is it about the books, you have the this great book, what is it about them that appeals to veterinarians? I mean, we know that it has a little bit to do with us. But what about it appeals to veterinarians, veterinary technicians, or other people…

Hear the answer to this question, and the rest of their conversation, at the top of this page or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Podcasts

Discover the journey of Clare T Walker, DVM, as a veterinarian and suspense author, blending veterinary insights with thrilling fiction.

Veterinary medicine into fiction

Bonnie Wright, DVM, DACVAA, cVMA, CVPP, CCRT, CCRP, discusses the prevalence of acupuncture use and availability of learning opportunities in a dvm360 interview.

Providing acupuncture education

Bonnie D. Wright, DVM, DACVAA, CVMA, CVPP, CCRT, CCRP, is a veterinary anesthesiologist and pain specialist and an educator with Evidence-Based Veterinary Acupuncture courses, based in Colorado and Hawaii. Wright recently led 4 continuing education (CE) sessions at the 2026 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida, hosted by the North American Veterinary Community. Wright discussed the prevalence of acupuncture in veterinary medicine, and how to access educational opportunities to learn more about it, in a 

Q&A on utilizing acupuncture in veterinary medicine

The following is a transcript of the video shown:

: How prevalent is the use of acupuncture in veterinary medicine?

The prevalence varies a lot by area, so areas where there's programs teaching acupuncture, like Florida, Colorado as two examples, end up with a higher prevalence of people practicing and then, but if you then spread that over the US, it drops a bit, but there are over 2500 people that are certified in acupuncture across the US. So it's actually a fair number that spans small animal, equine, a number of people in academic sorts of positions, and then some much smaller amount doing other species. So I think it's more prevalent than we realize outside of the little acupuncture bubble. Because I think sometimes people don't talk about it as much because there's sort of been this thought that it's unscientific or alternative or complementary. So I think, I think maybe that's one of the reasons why it's probably more prevalent than someone outside of that bubble realizes.

: How can more students learn acupuncture for veterinary practice?

 There are just a handful of schools that teach it within their curriculum. There's a bunch more—I think there were 24 of the US vet schools—that actually at least offer it for students to see in their clinical year. So in the clinical practice, you get up to a higher number by quite a bit. Some of the schools have pairings with the for-profit programs to get students into those programs. I think all of the programs that teach acupuncture as an add on, like a CE for veterinarians, do invite students and often give some sort of a discount to students so interested students can do it already, but it I'm hoping it gets a lot more common at the vet schools.

For more industry news and coverage of VMX, visit 

Videos

New evidence suggests long-held assumptions about risk, vaccination, and exposure may be leaving dogs unprotected, explains Jane Sykes, BVSc, DACVIM (SAIM), PhD, MPH, MBA, FNAP, in this interview.

Why leptospirosis is showing up in unexpected dogs

Cases of leptospirosis are emerging in dogs that some veterinarians would not have considered high risk, including puppies and otherwise healthy pets in urban settings. In this interview with 

, Jane Sykes, BVSc, DACVIM (SAIM), PhD, MPH, MBA, FNAP, a researcher and professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, explains what researchers are learning about the drivers behind these cases, from rodent exposure and overcrowded facilities to gaps in vaccination, and what the findings mean for clinical practice.

Below is a partial transcript, lightly edited for clarity.

Cases of leptospirosis are appearing in otherwise healthy dogs, including puppies. What factors are contributing to these cases in the US?

 That’s a really great question and something that we're actively involved in researching. It does seem like it's multifactorial. Probably in urban regions, in big cities, it's associated with population growth and rodent proliferation. So we do think that in the United States now, rodents might be an important source of infection for dogs, and that's based on pretty new evidence, and it's probably going to vary a little bit from place to place.

We also know that the outbreak that recently occurred in West Los Angeles that we were involved in studying actually was driven in part by overcrowding of boarding facilities, and we don't know for sure whether it was dog-to-dog transmission that occurred in those doggy daycare-type environments. But we do know that the boarding itself was a risk factor, and it might have been rodent problems in those facilities, or it might have just been really overcrowded facilities with lots of dogs in close contact with one another.

We're also seeing lepto in regions where we're studying an outbreak right now associated with homelessness and dogs of the homeless. So we know that dogs that are in homeless encampments also are at risk of lepto. But very importantly, not being vaccinated for lepto is the biggest risk factor. And so the dogs that were affected in West Los Angeles were either completely unvaccinated for lepto because they didn't think it was a problem in the region—and many vets didn't even carry leptospirosis vaccines—or they had just had one vaccine and not a follow-up booster three to four weeks later. Or some of them were actually getting vaccinated when they started developing leptospirosis, so they started getting sick. Owners in the region had heard about the outbreak, came running into their vets for vaccines, but it was too late. Or the second vaccine in the series was too late; the dog acquired illness or infection before they were able to get protection from a second vaccine.

And so disease in puppies, again, is related to the fact that it's difficult to vaccinate a dog by the time it's three months of age. You know, you start—you can start around, you know, eight to nine weeks of age, depending on the vaccine label, of course—and then you still need a second one three to four weeks later, and then you still need a week after that before there's adequate immunity. So it's difficult to get puppies vaccinated in time, and that's probably explaining some of the cases in puppies and in geriatric dogs.

Again, it's because people don't believe an older dog is at risk and needs a vaccine; same with small-breed dogs. But there's good new evidence that the current lepto vaccines are really safe...

New evidence suggests long-held assumptions about risk, vaccination, and exposure may be leaving dogs unprotected, explains Jane Sykes, BVSc, DACVIM (SAIM), PhD, MPH, MBA, FNAP, in this interview with dvm360.

Why leptospirosis is showing up in unexpected canine populations

Photo: Walter L Brown Jr, BS, RVTg, VTS (ECC)

The 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The 2026 Fetch dvm360 Conference series kicks off March 13-14 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Close to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the Charlotte Convention Center will host 2 days of CE learning.

This event offers more than 75 CE sessions across various learning tracks. One highlight of the conference is the daily keynote CE session. Speakers for these featured presentations are Rebecca Stepien, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Cardiology); and Christopher A. Lee, DVM, MPH, DACVPM, DACVM (Parasitology).

Stepien is a clinical professor of cardiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. Mitral valve disease in whippets, epidemiology and diagnosis of systemic hypertension in dogs and cats, cardiac effects of systemic illness, and clinical research design are among her professional areas of interest.

In her keynote session on March 13, 2026, Stepien will deliver the lecture “Where do we draw the line? Deciding when to start pimobendan in dogs with preclinical mitral valve disease” (MVD), she will describe evidence supporting pimobendan therapy for canines with preclinical MVD, indicators of treatable disease, and go in-depth about the drug and congestive heart failure.

Lee is a former medical director of an emergency hospital and has more than 15 years’ experience presenting practical education in immunology, infectious diseases, and parasite prevention. He is also the host of the 

In his keynote session “CSI: Canine scene investigation. Cracking the case in veterinary medicine” on March 14, 2026, Lee will guide the audience through interactive medical mysteries on infectious diseases, parasitology, and preventive care, relying on attendees to help make decisions and identify diagnoses.

To register and to learn more about the 2026 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Charlotte, visit 

https://registration.dvm360.com/fetch-charlotte-2026

visit dvm360.com/conference/fetch-charlotte

Keynote speakers for this conference in North Carolina are Rebecca Stepien, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Cardiology); and Christopher A. Lee, DVM, MPH, DACVPM, DACVM (Parasitology).

The Fetch conference series is returning to Charlotte

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued a statewide disaster declaration to bolster Texas’ defenses against New World screwworm (NWS), a parasitic fly whose flesh-eating larvae can cause severe tissue damage in warm-blooded animals and occasionally humans. The fly has not yet been detected in Texas or the United States, but 

 in northern Mexico have raised concern for a northward spread toward the US.

“Although the New World screwworm fly is not yet present in Texas or the US, its northward spread from Mexico toward the US southern border poses a serious threat to Texas’ livestock industry and wildlife,” Abbott said in a statement released January 29.

 The disaster declaration allows the Texas NWS Response Team—a group created last summer to address the NWS threat—to use all state government resources for prevention and potential eradication.

In August, the state also partnered with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a $750 million domestic sterile NWS production facility in Edinburg, Texas, designed to supply sterile flies for preventative releases.

Sterile fly releases are a cornerstone of NWS control. Female NWS flies mate only once. If they mate with sterile males, their eggs do not hatch. The US eradicated NWS in 1966 using this method.

Yet, cases of NWS throughout Central America have been on the rise since 2023, with the parasite reaching Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, 

, Christopher Lee, DVM, MPH, DACVPM, DACVM (Parasitology), a preventive medicine and parasitology  specialist, warned that if the parasite enters the US, it “has the potential to create devastation to our protein production, to pets, to [people], and to the wildlife.”

In further efforts to stop the northern spread of NWS, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said it is shifting its sterile fly dispersal area to include operations up to 50 miles into Texas along the border with Tamaulipas, Mexico, creating a proactive buffer zone to prevent infestation.

 Sterile flies carry no risk to livestock, wildlife, or humans.

Despite no confirmed cases in the US, the USDA and state agencies are leading “intensive” surveillance along the southern border, the USDA said.

 According to the federal agency, surveillance teams are tracking 121 traps designed specifically to detect the NWS, while thousands of additional insect and fruit fly traps line high-risk stretches of border states.

To date, more than 42,000 flies have been collected and analyzed, and over 9300 wildlife inspections across 39 species in 131 counties have found no NWS infestations.

NWS is detected in Florida—in an imported horse

Earlier this week, a horse with NWS arrived at an equine import quarantine facility in Florida. According to the USDA, the horse, which came from Argentina, presented for routine importation and inspection. During examination, the APHIS found an open wound with larvae and was immediately treated with medication to kill any larvae in accordance with standard, import protocols. On January 30, the National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed that the larvae were NWS. The animal will remain in quarantine until follow-up examinations determine it is free of the parasite, the USDA said.

Vet Watch update: New World screwworm or not? What vets should and shouldn’t submit to labs

Although the case does not appear to be linked to the ongoing outbreak in Mexico, officials said it highlights the importance of sustained vigilance, import requirements, and protocols in the broader effort to prevent the parasite’s spread.

Veterinary considerations and client guidance

Veterinarians play a key role in early detection and prevention. Livestock producers and pet owners along the southern border should monitor animals for signs of NWS myiasis, including draining or enlarging wounds, discomfort, or the presence of larvae or eggs near body openings.

Adult flies resemble the common housefly, sometimes slightly larger, and have metallic green or blue bodies, orange eyes, and 3 dark stripes down its back. Early recognition and reporting to the Texas Animal Health Commission, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, or a 

NWS larvae burrow into living tissue, causing painful, enlarging wounds. Prompt treatment is essential to prevent serious damage or death. Although human cases are rare, veterinarians should advise owners to seek immediate medical care if NWS exposure is suspected.

Governor Abbott Issues Disaster Declaration To Prevent New World Screwworm Fly Infestation. News release. Office of the Texas Governor, January 29, 2026. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-issues-disaster-declaration-to-prevent-new-world-screwworm-fly-infestation

Governor Abbott, Secretary Rollins Announce $750 Million For New World Screwworm Protection Facility. News release. Office of the Texas Governor. August 15, 2025. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-secretary-rollins-announce-750-million-for-new-world-screwworm-protection-facility-

New World Screwworms. Texas Animal Health Commission. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://www.tahc.texas.gov/emergency/nws.html

Lee C, Alaburda B. Vet Watch Update: New World screwworm. 

May 16, 2025. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://www.dvm360.com/view/vet-watch-update-new-world-screwworm

Although the parasite has not yet been detected in the US, officials warn that its northward movement poses a serious risk to livestock and wildlife.