TY - JOUR T1 - Cow hair sensitisation is uncommon among Danish dairy farmers despite high allergen levels JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p4174 AU - Vivi Schlünssen AU - Ioannis Basinas AU - Eva Zahradnik AU - Grete Elholm AU - Øyvind Omland AU - Monika Raulf-Heimsoth AU - Torben Sigsgaard Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4174.abstract N2 - Background: Bovine allergens can induce allergic airway diseases. Recently high levels of cow hair allergens (CHA) in dust from stables and homes of dairy farmers were reported (Zahradnik E et al. IAAl 2011;155:225-233).Objective: To investigate CHA levels among dairy farmers (DF), pig farmers (PF), former farmers (FF) and never farmers (NF) and to assess CHA sensitisation in these groups.Methods: In 2007-8 415 dust samples were collected using an electrostatic dustfall collector, EDC (Noss I et al. Appl Environ Microbiol 2008;74:5621-7) with a 14 days sampling time among 54 PF, 27 DF, 71 FF and 51 NF. Among farmers sampling was carried out both summer and winter. The cow hair allergen levels (ug/m2) were measured using a sandwich ELISA assay (Zahradnik E et al. IAAl 2011;155:225-233). SPT for cow hair allergens (ALK-Abello ®) were performed among 48 PF, 20 DF, 54 FF and 31 NF.Results: CHA levels were substantially higher in stables than bedrooms. DF had much higher CHA level compared to PF. FF and NF had low levels of CHA in their bedrooms compared to DF and PF. No one but one PF (former DF) was sensitised to CHA.View this table:Table 1. CHA (μg/m2) among DF, PF, FF and NF strat. by summer/winter and stable/bedroom. N, median (min-max)Conclusion: These results confirm high CHA levels on dairy farms. Despite this no dairy farmers were sensitised to CHA. Selection out of dairy farming might be of importance. ER -