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Author wrote:
>I am looking for any research done on the core cause of Eosiniphilic
>Gastro Entireties.  I understand that it presents as food allergies.
>What I am looking for is the CAUSE of the food allergies.  Is it genetic
>disposition, improper weaning, luck of the draw?  I have searched the
>internet so far and have not found anything on the causes of this
>disease.
 
EGE is a special variant of inflammatory bowel disease.  The research
done on this disease was fairly limited and conducted in the early 90's
when the disease was first described at MIT.
 
Because the most populous cell in the inflamed intestine in this variant
is the eosinophil, which modulates allergies as well as fights parasitic
infections.  the assumption since that time was that the disease was
either allergic or parasitic in nature.  Parasites have never been
identified in these cases, although most of us pathologists have spent
many fruitless hours looking.  The assumption that it is an allergic
condition is extremely difficult to prove, due to the tremendous number
of factors in the average ferret diet, and the fact that there is no
readily available model or line of ferrets that will develop the
condition with any reproducibility.  EGE is a sporadic and as yet
uncommon disease.
 
Now anecdotally, these animals appear to do better on a turkey-based diet
rather than chicken, and this has been shown in quite a few cases, but
that is a long way from saying that this is a food allergy.  Plus the
disease itself is not similar at all to other inflammatory bowel diseases
which have a known food trigger, such as sprue in humans.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 4265]