Adverse reaction to food in dogs and cats.

摘要

An adverse reaction to food (ARF) may be defined as an abnormal response to ingested food or food additives. Such reactions can be classified into two major groups: immunologic adverse reactions to food (food anaphylaxis and food allergy) and non-immunologic adverse reactions (food intolerance and food indiscretion). Veterinary dermatologists suggest that ARF account for 1-6% of all dermatoses in general practice, while food allergy constitutes 10-20% of the allergic responses in dogs and cats. Canine and feline food hypersensitivity is a nonseasonal, pruritic skin disorder with or without concurrent gastrointestinal disturbances that is associated with the ingestion of food allergens. The clinical symptoms of food allergy are very similar to other skin or gastrointestinal disorders, which should be excluded through differential diagnosis. Moreover, at present routine laboratory tests, intradermal allergy testing and serological tests (RAST, ELISA) do not provide unambiguous information for specific diagnosis of food allergy. Thus, the diagnosis of food hypersensitivity is based on anamnesis and an elimination diet. This article presents three various cases of food allergy: in one Dogo Argentino and two European cats..