Monitoring of the intra-dermal XXXX skin test performed by Belgian field practitioners.

@entity1 @entity378 @entity291
The present study aimed to monitor skin test practices as performed by veterinarian field practitioners in Belgium. For this purpose, an anonymous postal questionnaire was elaborated and dispatched to veterinarians involved in @entity291 @entity378 detection. The questionnaire included items focusing on the skin test performance. International experts in the field of @entity291 @entity378 were asked to fill the questionnaire and a scoring scale was built as follows: 0 = 'ideal' answer, 1 = acceptable answer, whereas 2 = unacceptable answer. Furthermore, experts were asked to rank the questionnaire's items according to their possible impact on the risk of not detecting reactors. A global score was further calculated for each @entity1 and a comparison of practices was carried out between the two regions of the country, i.e. Wallonia and Flanders. Significant differences were observed between both regions, a harmonization at the country level is thus essential. No veterinarian summed a null score, corresponding to the ideal skin test procedure, which suggests that skin-testing is far from being performed correctly. Field practitioners need to be sensitized to the importance of correctly performing the test. The authors recommend the questionnaire is suitable for application in other countries or regions.
