Sensitization to storage mites and other work-related and common allergens among Finnish dairy farmers
Terho, E.O.; Vohlonen, I.; Husman, K.; Rautalahti, M.; Tukiainen, H.; Viander, M.
European Journal of Respiratory Diseases. Supplement 152: 165-174
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0106-4347 PMID: 3478215 Document Number: 290672
Skin tests were made on 121 dairy farmers with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma, 64 dairy farmers without respiratory symptoms and 26 non-farming control subjects. The antigens tested included extracts of the storage mites Acarus siro, Lepidoglyphus destructor and Tyrophagus putrescentiae, the house dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, the fungi Aspergillus glaucus, Candida utilis, C. albicans and Cryptococcus albidus, cow danders, hen feathers, cereal grains and pollens. The mean areas of weals formed by individual allergens were adjusted by analysis of covariance for age, sex and atopic background. Adjusted mean weal areas for almost all allergens, except pollens and a few other allergens, were significantly larger in farmers than in non-farming controls. In contrast, only skin reactions to cow dander, to a non-dialysed crude preparation of Candida utilis and to C. albicans distinguished symptomatic farmers from asymptomatic ones. Stepwise discriminant analysis, in which reactions to all allergens as well as age, sex and atopy were taken into account simultaneously, revealed that reactions to a dialysed preparation of C. utilis best distinguished symptomatic farmers from asymptomatic ones. C. utilis and C. albicans may be cross-reactive. The results implied that skin tests alone are of limited value in the search for work-related causes of rhinitis or asthma among dairy farmers.