Bio-Medical Services Introduces Specialty Diet Food-Allergy Test; New Test Coupled With Traditional Panel Is Most Comprehensive On The Market.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Specialty Diet Service Will Test Pets For Allergies in Response to Wave of New Pet Food Ingredients

Bio-Medical Services (BMS), a reference laboratory that specializes in working with veterinarians both nationwide and internationally to provide allergy testing for dogs, cats and horses, announced today its new Specialty Diet Food Test. This new service was created in response to the recent wave of holistic and alternative ingredients now being introduced into pet foods.

One of the first labs in the nation to offer a safe, accurate and reliable in vitro test to identify specific offending allergens in symptomatic animals, BMS continues to be a pioneer in providing effective allergy management tools to its veterinary clients with the introduction of the Specialty Diet Food Allergy Test.

The new Specialty Diet Test will be offered as a complement to the Traditional Diet Test to help veterinarians keep pace with current food trends and provide the highest quality care and service to their patients. The Specialty Diet Test will test pets for allergic reactions to ten ingredients, such as duck, venison, apple, berry mix, tomato and green peas in addition to others.

"This new food panel is tremendously helpful for veterinarians and their patients," said Dr. Christina Barcus, owner of Canine Sports Medicine in Lake Vista, Ill. "It's pretty amazing how quickly symptoms such as chronic diarrhea can be cleared up when we identify the problem through allergy testing. The new Specialty Diet food panel is one of those tools that helps us quickly and effectively diagnose our patients' problems and treat the cause not the symptom."

"We are very excited to introduce this new food panel," said Dr. Susan Keesee, president and chief scientific officer of Bio-Medical Services. "We have noticed a trend by pet food companies to include non-traditional ingredients in new food formulas entering the market. We are staying on top of that trend by introducing the new Specialty Diet Food Test to provide yet another important tool for veterinarians to help pet owners diagnose allergic reactions to ingredients in food. Coupled with our Traditional food panel, we believe this to be one of the most comprehensive food allergy tests on the market."

The Specialty Diet Food test is an in vitro or laboratory test that measures a serum antibody called IgE. IgE is produced at elevated levels in animals affected by allergy. The food allergy test detects IgE specific for individual food allergen proteins. In vitro allergy tests are accurate, reproducible, and only require a small blood sample from the patient.

The Specialty Diet Food Test is now available to veterinarians.

About Bio-Medical Services

Bio-Medical Services is a veterinary reference laboratory specializing in allergy testing and treatment for dogs, cats and horses. Founded in 1989, Bio-Medical Services was the first laboratory to develop a commercial application for in vitro allergy diagnostics in the veterinary industry. Bio-Medical Services is based in Austin, TX. Please visit www.bmslab.com to learn more.