103 | Allergy Testing Horses

Feed Room Chemist: An Equine Nutrition Podcast

How accurate are serum allergy tests? Do you really need to use an elimination diet or buy allergy shots for your horse? This episode is likely to take you by surprise!

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Show Notes:

· Study in HORSES shows serum allergy tests are unreliable in 59 allergens tested: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetimm.2007.08.007

· Study concludes serum allergy testing is not a reliable screening tool for food allergy in healthy EQUIDS: https://doi.org/10.1111/evj.12369

· Study in DOGS showing only 28% agreement between serum and intradermal testing among 487 reactions. Blocking anti-CCD IgE improved the agreement to a moderate level of 59%: https://doi.org/10.1111/vde.12742

· Study evaluated 4 allergy tests in HORSES and found that none of them could reliably differentiate between controls and asthma-affected horses. There was also no agreement among the results of the 4 different allergy tests: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103433

· Invitro allergy tests compared to intradermal testing in HORSES with RAO: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetimm.2008.09.021