Veterinary Allergy Reference Lab

VARL – Veterinary Allergy Reference Laboratory – is a USDA licensed laboratory serving veterinarians all over the United States and 21 other countries worldwide in the specialized area of serum allergy testing and formulation of customized allergen prescription vaccines for individual allergic dogs and cats

Before 1990 veterinarians desiring to identify the individual allergens causing their patients’ allergies had only two options. The patient was either referred to a veterinary dermatologist for intradermal skin testing or the patient’s serum sample was submitted to a laboratory using the RAST/ELISA technology to identify culprit allergens. Patients, however, cannot be skin-tested while under the influence of antihistamines, corticosteroids, cyclosporine or oclacitinib – the same drugs that relieve them of their allergy symptoms. Weeks of abstinence and withdrawal from these drugs are necessary before skin testing can be performed. In the time being the pet suffers. The RAST/ELISA serum testing employs a solid-phase methodology to identify culprit allergens from a patient’s serum but with a reputation of unacceptable high incidence of false positive results. So, when veterinarians started asking for a serum allergy test that is accurate for determining the culprit allergens that make their dog and cat patients itch so miserably … We Heard! In 1990, VARL developed the first serum allergy test technology that is not based on solid phase reaction like RAST/ELISA. VARL engineered a unique liquid phase matrix technology which, for the first time, is capable of accurate identification of offending allergens from serum samples of dogs and cats without the notorious false positive results commonly encountered with solid phase RAST/ELISA