Allergens Causing Atopic Diseases in Canine

ABSTRACT

Canine atopic skin disease is seasonal or sometimes non-seasonal immune-mediated skin disease which occurs commonly in Korea. The definite clinical sign is systemic pruritus, especially on periocular parts, external ear, interdigit spaces and lateral flank. For diagnosis of this dermatitis, complete history taking followed by intradermal skin test and serum in vitro IgE test needs to be performed. Allergen selection for the diagnosis and treatment of atopic dermatitis should be varied geographically. In this study, with intradermal skin test(IDST) the prevalence of atopic disease and what allergens are involved in are researched. Allergens used for IDST included 26 allergen extracts from six allergen groups grasses, trees, weeds, molds, epidermal allergens and environmental allergens. The number of allergens was 42 in which the positive and negative controls are included. The most common positive allergen reaction was the house dust mites on IDST(22/35, 63%). The other positive allergen reactions were to flea(3/35, 9%), molds(1/35, 3%), house dusts(2/35, 6%), feathers (1/35, 3%), cedar/juniper(1/35, 3%), timothy grass(1/35, 3%) and dandelion(1/35, 3%). In this study, the most prevalent allergen causing atopic dermatitis in dogs in Korea was the house dust mites followed by the flea.