Evaluation of the theoretical risk of cross‐reactivity among recently identified food allergens for dogs

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence of cross‐reactivity between allergens of close or distant species. The A‐RISC (Allergens'–Relative Identity, Similarity and Cross‐reactivity) index helps evaluate the risk of theoretical cross‐reactivity between proteins of the same family among different species. OBJECTIVES: To report the A‐RISC indices for several food allergens of dogs between multiple food sources. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We selected several recently characterised food allergens for dogs from fish and chicken (ACTA1, ALDOA, CKM, ENO3, GAPDH, PKM and TPI1), fish (TPM1/2), beef/lamb (PGM1) and corn/potato (WAXY). When quality sequence data were available, A‐RISC indices were calculated between multiple animal and plant species that can be used as food sources. For the TPM subunits, A‐RISC indices also were calculated with the environmental allergens Bla g 4 and Der f 10, and the Toxocara canis nematode. RESULTS: The A‐RISC indices suggest a substantial theoretical risk of cross‐reactivity between species for all allergens considered. For TPM, this risk also extends to the environmental and nematode allergens. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: There is a high theoretical risk of cross‐reactivity between allergens of different species used as food sources. The clinical relevance of these elevated A‐RISC indices should be studied further.