Animal Models of Food Allergy

Food allergy can result in significant morbidity and mortality in adults and children. Animals are used to study and explore the pathological mechanisms of foodinduced sensitization and allergic reactions, and for experimenting with new modalities of treatment. Murine species became the preferred choice as a model of food allergy given the large accumulated work done in this field using the murine species leading to solid experience and development of valid experiential tools to characterize and assess immune mechanisms and reactions to food antigens. Other animals are used with varying success and have advantages and disadvantages such as rats, guinea pigs, dogs, pigs, and sheep. This chapter will describe these animal models highlighting their advantages and disadvantages and similarities to human immune systems.