The allergy diagnosis plan in veterinary medicine

Abstract

Regarding the more common allergen sources for animals, fleas, several air-born allergens, as well as many food allergens are frequent causes of allergic reactions, showing different target organs from skin to eye and respiratory or digestive systems. The increasing attention to this field of veterinary clinical pathology needs to run well established guide-lines, either in clinical or in complementary diagnosis. Since Hanifin and Rajka (1980) proposed criteria for atopic dermatitis diagnosis in humans, successive proposals have been also developed to identify atopic dermatitis in dogs. A consensual plan was firstly proposed by Willemse in 1986, undertaking modifications in 1994. In 1998 Prelaud and col. would establish important modifications and in 2009 Favrot proposed several fine tune adjustments, which were supported by the International Task Force on Canine Atopic Dermatitis (ITFCAD) in 2010. Nevertheless, to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, integrating basal knowledge on sensitization etiopathogeny and allergen nature and diversity, allergen sources and implicated molecular allergens for animals should be well identified. This progressive process also stands as an essential step for the veterinary diagnosis of allergy in the near future, since it should be the basis of a Component-resolved diagnosis (CRD), which will be of high relevance for an increased efficiency of eviction measures and specific immunotherapy, besides the common pharmacoterapy. Starting by a clinical diagnostic protocol that will lead to at least 80% of positive diagnosis of allergy, several possible laboratorial methods are necessary to extend and clarify the diagnosis. Our objective is to contribute to the clinical-laboratorial diagnostic improvement, attending to different complementary diagnostic methods already available for veterinary diagnosis and to others that may be very useful in the near future, in spite of their actual lack of standardization for veterinary use. Knowledge of the allergoms for animals from allergen sources proteoms is a work to be done in order to allow the CRD in veterinary allergy. Over all, only a deep knowledge about the available laboratory diagnostic methods and implicated allergens will provide veterinary allergists the necessary information to proceed upon the application of the clinical diagnostic plan, in a further and further demanding scenario.