Through allergen tests for dogs, Medi-Tec approaches a help against fur allergy. Right now we are working both in the field and in the lab to soon reach out with our test to dog owners.
Medi-Tec is currently working on diagnosing allergens in dogs. Via the dog allergen test that we developed, dog owners will in the near future be able to test their dogs at home and then find out which allergens the dog has a lot of/little of. This is a solution that gives a measure of how hypoallergenic the dog is.
Our test has been carefully designed and tested in the laboratory, thus we have arrived at a safe and stable way to test dogs' allergen levels with reliable results. We have also started field tests with 100 of the 500 dog owners/kennels who have registered an interest, and in addition ten litters of puppies. Through the sampling, we map how allergen levels differ between different dogs - both between breeds and individuals. The test results will be evaluated in the coming months.
Medi-Tec collaborates with several important organizations. One of them is the Swedish Kennel Club, which sees that there is a large lack of knowledge regarding fur allergy and therefore wants to contribute to knowledge and solutions. We inform the national organization about the progress in our allergy research and continuously discuss opportunities for collaboration.
Sweden's University of Agriculture is another of Medi-Tec's partners. The university is currently carrying out a project to map the path of the various allergens through the body.
The Defense Dog Breeding Station in Sollefteå also helps us in the research, by testing litters of puppies regularly. The collaboration is seen as a valuable opportunity to produce hypoallergenic working dogs in customs, police and as guide dogs, etc. In addition to our significant partners, the EU also supports our research through the Eurostars project.
The next step in Medi-Tec's research is to launch our dog allergen test on a larger scale - with the help of you as a dog owner. By allergen testing your dog, you will be able to contribute to our allergy research.
The goal of the home tests is to be able to measure all known allergens in dogs. In parallel with test evaluation, we will also continue to research allergen secretion and investigate how it differs between dogs, as well as how to reduce it. Later, we plan to increase production capacity in order to carry out larger quantities of allergen tests and in this way get closer to helping with fur allergy.
