Food-specific sublingual immunotherapy is well tolerated and safe in healthy dogs: a blind, rando...
1. Introduction/Background
1.1. Allergies are prevalent in both humans and dogs
1.2. Impossible to cure allergies in dogs, but is possible to build up immunity
1.3. SCIT (subcutaneous immunotherapy) has shown to be effective, but is dissuaded due to negative side effects
1.3.1. subcutaneous immunotherapy is passively building up an immunity to something
2. Methods
2.1. Randomization and Blinding Procedures
2.1.1. had Subjects assigned to treatment group or placebo group (4 healthy beagle dogs each)
2.1.2. Randomization by flipping a coin to determine assignment of each subject
2.1.3. Animal caretakers blinded to the treatments of the dogs
2.2. Peanut and Placebo Sublingual Drops
2.2.1. no
2.2.2. Normal saline solution served as placebo
2.3. SLIT protocol
2.3.1. Started by dispensing between 50 - 250 µl of solution in oral cavity under tounge
2.3.2. Test performed 1 hour after a meal, dogs were not allowed to eat or drink for 30 minutes after the test.
2.3.3. Doses increased daily and weekly until dosage reached 2,000 µl.
2.3.4. Animal caretakers recorded any adverse effects the solution had on the dogs
2.4. Statistical Analysis
2.4.1. "Haematological parameters, serum biochemistry and urinary parameters (specific gravity and pH) were compared between groups, before the experiment (day 0), at day 35 and at the end of the SLIT (day 119)"
2.4.2. Data subjected to ANOVA at a significance level of 0.05
2.4.2.1. If p value of differences in serum peanut-specific IgG and IgE between the two group was < 0.05, it was significant
3. Results
3.1. All dogs completed the study, SLIT was accepted by all dogs in the study. No adverse effects were recorded in any dogs.
3.2. Baseline mean body weights: Placebo - 9.58 kg (st dev = 0.93) Treatment - 11.5 kg (st dev = 1.23)
3.2.1. Mean body weight remained relatively constant during the study