Axiom Veterinary Laboratory News Letter SUMMER 2005

HOME		Summer 2005 “THOROUGH DE-LOUSING @ BSAVA” Axiom's South Eastern Postal Expansion Creative Marketing! ALLERCEPT FC Epsilon Receptor NEW-Axiom Allergy Screening Test FOOD... Again Axiom's All-Ireland Service De-Loused @ BSAVA! Our Melanie Wins NEW Phone System NEW 2005 Price List  Customer Feedback  OTHER AXIOM NEWSLETTERS For your information the winners of the Axiom BSAVA Congress competition were: All Axiom Newsletters are copyright ©
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We hope, for those who went, that this year’s BSAVA Congress was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Over 700 people attended the Axiom stand and were thoroughly deloused! We were particularly pleased to meet the old friends and many new faces that have started to utilise our services over the last 12 months. The Congress gives us a chance to meet practitioners and discuss developments in the field of clinical pathology. It was refreshing to hear that to our clients, Axiom Veterinary Laboratories still remains...

...“The Quality Clinical Pathology Service”

Axiom's South Eastern Postal Expansion

With the spectacular success of our London Service, based in Vauxhall, we are pleased to offer a freepost service to the rest of the South East region. This freepost service will allow postal samples into our Vauxhall Laboratory for those practices in the South East who may not as yet be able to gain advantage from our comprehensive courier network. The postal service utilises our superb P650 compliant packaging, which ensures that your submissions reach us in optimum condition. The London / South Eastern Service also allows you to benefit from our fantastic range of specifically designed investigative and monitoring profiles, including our exceptionally cost effective London Profile. If you wish to discuss the developments in the South Eastern region, the benefits to you and your practice of the new developments, to discuss our courier network, or simply to order some of our freepost P650 compliant packaging, then call us today on 01626 778844 or email admin@axiomvetlab.co.uk

Creative Marketing!

Since the beginning of the year there has been a definite shift in the marketing policy of competitor services probably due to commercial pressure. This varies from massive discounts, to the selling of unproven diagnostic tests. The best discount scheme we have seen is the 50% off introductory offer which lasts a month and is only open to new customers and therefore does not reward existing clients loyalty! Of course if the prices are 50% more expensive to start with then one can afford to offer a 50% discount. A couple of our clients were tempted but disappointed to find that a 50% discount was still more expensive that Axiom’s prices discounted by 15%. Needless to say the clients quickly returned when the discount ended and the true prices kicked in. On the diagnostic test front, two tests tie in the unproven stakes. Serological food testing and a test for tumour sensitivity “the culmination of many years commercial and academic work in human biology”…. What they failed to mention was that it had real problems in human medicine and had absolutely no basis at all in veterinary medicine. Our team were shocked such a bogus “test” could be offered without any validation studies. We wait with bated breath for some actual evidence that they work, let alone have any predictive value, before even considering advising clients to use it.

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ALLERCEPT FC Epsilon Receptor

Is not the same as monoclonal antibodies against the Epsilon Chain. Several clients came to our stand confused, wondering if there are two labs now offering this service. The answer is NO. HeskaTM retains a patent on this technology and it is only available through Axiom Veterinary Laboratories. The confusion arises because another lab is offering “Epsilon Chain Technology”.

This is another example of creative marketing. The test is nothing more than another monoclonal antibody directed against the epsilon or heavy chain of the IgE molecule. Of course being a monoclonal antibody it will not work in the cat or horse….. but you could send some cat serum to check! As for the “high degree of accuracy” we await some published data.

System	% "FALSE POSITIVES"
	FBS	ALB	SPFS
Elisa A	0%	33.30%	0%
Allercept	0%	0.70%	3.50%
Elisa S	31%	27.70%	28.90%
Elisa V	5.00%	1.70%	3.50%
A recent study by Doug Deboer at Wisconsin investigated some In Vitro systems. Samples of heat inactivated foetal bovine serum (FBS), purified canine albumin ALB and serum from specific pathogen free dogs SPFS were tested on various Elisa’s. All systems should have reported completely negative results. It shows not all systems are the same; two of the worst performers are available in the UK. Both offer foods and some interesting allergens such as tobacco smoke and nylon!
Too many people try to equate AllerceptTM data with other In vitro tests which is of course invalid.

NEW-Axiom Allergy Screening Test

Axiom are pleased to announce the introduction of a new FC Epsilon based allergy screening service. We are discarding the old mon-oclonal technology and introducing an allergy screening test based on FC Epsilon Receptor for our TopscreenTM Service. There will be no price increase for this improved service and this test is now applicable to the Dog, Cat and Horse. We will be introducing this service on the 1st June as part of the continued improvement of our allergy testing service.

FOOD... Again

At the pre-congress BVDSG meeting there was a panel discussion on “adverse cutaneous food reactions and food serology” There was a great deal of debate on its frequency with the incidence ranging from 5-20% of allergy cases in practice. There is no doubt some skin conditions respond to food manipulation. There is no evidence that serological testing identifies specific individual foods associated with adverse cutaneous food reactions and therefore testing is in-appropriate. An exclusion diet based on home cooking or hydrolysed protein diets remains the diagnostic tool. “Perhaps yet another example of creative marketing!”

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Axiom's All-Ireland Service

The Axiom All Ireland Service, based out of Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin has proved to be extremely successful with the number of practices choosing to utilise our service increasing to over 100. The Axiom All Ireland Service includes the quality and service associated internationally with Axiom Veterinary Laboratories, full P650 compliant packaging, invoicing in Euros (€’s), Free sampling consumables and interpretative comment on a wider range of test options by our team of 10 pre-eminent clinical pathologists.

De-Loused @ BSAVA!

This years BSAVA Congress saw the Axiom stand A50 overwhelmed by Vets, Nurses and Students wishing to be de-loused. With over 10% of the congress delegates exchanging their avian biting louse for one of our canine/feline haem-atology images, equine/rabbit haematology images or the new parasite images posters. These posters are of course available to clients all year round, so if you missed out at BSAVA then please contact us for your copies.

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Our Melanie Wins

Melanie Craven was awarded with the coveted Petsavers award for a clinical research paper on inflammatory bowel disease in dogs at BSAVA. Melanie is one of the more recent additions to the Axiom Clinical team that now has reached 10 in number.

NEW Phone System

Axiom will be installing a new phone service soon so that your urgent calls will be answered quicker. Full details to follow but you will be able to leave voice messages or request an immediate call back. There will also be a feast of hidden extras that will allow us to improve our already excellent customer service.

NEW 2005 Price List

By now you should have received the Axiom 2005 / 2006 price list. If you have not then please contact us. The price list is available in Sterling and Euro's and in hard copy and electronic versions. Regrettably some increases are necessary; we all know business rates continue to climb way over inflation and the cost of some supplies also increases. Price increases were minimal with an average of less than 2.5%.

Customer Feedback

We have recently modified our Rabies certificate to include an “earliest return to UK date”. Being lab based we were unaware this was a problem for vets in practice and once alerted we were pleased to add this additional information. If you know of something that will enhance our service to you or your clients please call us and we will be pleased to evaluate it.

The best time to phone for veterinary advice is 09.00-11.00 and 14.00-16.00 hrs.

For your information the winners of the Axiom BSAVA Congress competition were as follows:

Philip Barr @ Wood Street

Blythman & Partners

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"We look forward to providing our clients with continued support and innovation in clinical pathology"

Axiom Veterinary Laboratories Ltd. The Manor House, Brunel Road, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 4PB, UK. TEL: +44 (0)1626 355655 FAX: +44 (0)1626 357750/1 E-mail:admin@axiomvetlab.co.uk  Copyright © 2007 Axiom Veterinary Laboratories Limited. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.