Adverse food reactions occur in human as well as veterinary patients. Systematic comparison may lead to improved recommendations for prevention and treatment in both. In this position paper, we summarize the current knowledge on immediate-type food allergy vs other food adverse reactions in companion animals, and compare this to the human situation. While the prevalence of food allergy in humans has been well studied for some allergens, this remains to be investigated for animal patients, where owner-reported as well as veterinarian-diagnosed food adverse reactions are on the increase. The characteristics of the disease in humans vs dogs, cats, and horses are most often caused by similar, but sometimes species-dependent different pathophysiological mechanisms, prompting the specific clinical symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments. Furthermore, little is known about the allergen molecules causative for type I food allergy in animals, which, like in human patients, could represent predictive biomarkers for risk evaluation. The definite diagnosis of food allergy relies-as in humans-on elimination diet and provocation tests. Besides allergen avoidance in daily practice, novel treatment options and tolerization strategies are underway. Taken together, numerous knowledge gaps were identified in veterinary food allergy, which need to be filled by systematic comparative studies.

Allergy Care Allergy Diagnosis and Study Center Vienna Austria

Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine Ludwig Maximilian University Munich Munich Germany

Clinica Veterinaria Privata San Marco Padova Italy

Comparative Medicine The Interuniversity Messerli Research Institute of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna Medical University of Vienna and University of Vienna Vienna Austria

Dermatology Referral Services LTD Glasgow Scotland UK

Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research Center of Pathophysiology Infectiology and Immunology Medical University of Vienna Vienna Austria

References provided by Crossref.org

Epithelial barrier dysfunction and associated diseases in companion animals: Differences and similarities between humans and animals and research needs