ONLY 24 hours after receiving the Queen's Award For Enterprise and meeting the Queen and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, YorkTest Veterinary Services has won another major award.

This time the firm, which tests for animal allergies, won the Business Innovation of the Year Award for the North East at the National Business Awards regional ceremony in Manchester.

YorkTest Veterinary Services, based at Garth Mews, Sim Balk Lane, Bishopthorpe, with laboratories in Osbaldwick, was up against big corporations like Northumbria Water, Armeg Ltd and Union Industries.

But the judges, who included representatives from the BBC, Nottingham University Building School, Business Link and various chambers of commerce, hailed the company as winner because of its breakthrough allergy testing for felines.

Janice Culligan, managing director, said: "Until now, nobody has been able to isolate the antibodies in cats from which diagnoses on allergies are made."

But then Dr Bruce Hammerberg of North Carolina University succeeded and in conjunction with the university formulated a special allergy test.

Now YorkTest Veterinary Services will compete against the winners of four other regions of Britain at the national finals at London's Grosvenor House on November 11.

That could add yet another accolade to the firm's collection, which began with the Evening Press Small Business of the Year in 2001.

Mrs Culligan said: "Cats suffer from asthma and skin problems and are often allergic to foods, including believe it or not, milk and fish.

"Anyone who thinks their cat has problems should take it to the vet who, after eliminating other possible causes, might send us a blood sample to check for antibodies and on the basis of the findings, perhaps recommend a change of diet."

The organisation is well known for testing dogs, "but there are now seven million cats as pets compared with only six million dogs, so the uptake is expected to be big."

Meanwhile, the firm has just developed a test for allergies in horses. "Often horses' performance can be affected by allergies and we expect it to have a significant impact, particularly in North Yorkshire," she said.

Updated: 09:47 Wednesday, July 21, 2004