Adverse Food Reactions in Humans and Pets
Adverse food reactions (AFR) can be divided into non-immune-mediated (food intolerance) and immune-mediated (food hypersensitivity). In fact while the first involve non-immunologic adverse reactions to food and include conditions such as lactase deficiency, dietary protein-induced enterocolitis syndromes and eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease, the second are considered adverse health effects arising from a specific immune response that occurs on exposure to a given food. In fact, food intolerance can occur with diarrhea or vomiting and do not create a typical allergic response. Loss of tolerance to foods leads to induction of type I hypersensitivity reactions, which in turn are influenced by several factors including genetic susceptibility, the nature of antigen, which initiates the disease and challenge with infections and bacteria. Although adverse foods reactions may occur after ingestion of any kind of food, potentially allergenic food ingredients are limited in veterinary medicine. Unfortunately most of these are often untraceable due to their mixing with other compounds during pet food production.
