The effect of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant diet on immediate and late-phase cutaneous allergic reactions in healthy dogs

Abstract

Canine atopic dermatitis (AD) is a highly pruritic and inflammatory skin disease that affects 10-15% of the canine population. The goal of nutritional management for canine AD is to inhibit the inflammatory response, stabilize the skin barrier and support skin and coat health. A new veterinary-exclusive pet food, Hill's Derm Defense (HDD) diet, has been designed for skin and coat health benefits as well as immune modulation in canine AD. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of administrering an oral HDD diet for 6 weeks in suppressing histamine, compound 48/80 and anticanine IgE antibody-induced global wheal scores (GWS) and late phase reactions (LPR) in nine healthy dogs. On days-10 (baseline), 25 and 46 (3 and 6 weeks of only HDD diet treatment) and day 60 (return to baseline), intradermal injections of histamine, anticanine IgE and compound 48/80 were performed on the right lateral side of the thorax in all the dogs. None of the dogs showed any side effects during the study and the HDD diet was well tolerated by all the dogs. There was no significant reduction in histamine, anticanine IgE and compound 48/80 GWS and LPRs with the HDD diet treatment compared to baseline (day-10) and return to baseline (day 60). This research suggests that HDD diet does not exert inhibitory and anti-inflammatory effects on histamine, anticanine IgE-and compound 48/80-mediated skin reactions in healthy dogs. Future studies should assess the clinical efficacy of the HDD diet in controlled clinical trials of dogs with AD.