Abstract
A questionnaire survey of 1005 consecutive attenders at four outpatient clinics yielded 117 (12%) budgerigar fanciers (exposed to budgerigars- known in North America as parakeets-for at least three months) and 296 (29%) former fanciers. Twnety had precipitins to budgerigar serum or droppings or both, and 10 of these together with 39 precipitin-negative patients reported undue breathlessness on exertion during exposure to buderigars. These 59 patients were investigated further, seven completing a series of inhalation provocation tests with budgerigar antigens designed to confirm or exclude budgerigar-fancier's lung (BrFL). Typical positive responses were obtained from four current and one former fancier. The prevalence of confirmed BrFL among the 11n current budgerigar fanciers was 3.4% (four cases). This was biased, however, by the inclusion of one patient whose attendance at the surveyed clinic was attributable to the disease. With the exclusion of this patient, confidence limits suggested that the true prevalence of BrFL among current budgerigar fanciers in the general population lies between 0.5% and 7.5%, which is similar to the prevalence of farmer's lung in farm workers. In view of the enormous population at risk, however, this implies that BrFL rather than farmer's lung is by far the commonest type of allergic alveolitis in Britain.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Caldwell J. R., Pearce D. E., Spencer C., Leder R., Waldman R. H. Immunologic mechanisms in hypersensitivity pneumonitis. I. Evidence for cell-mediated immunity and complement fixation in pigeon breeders' disease. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1973 Oct;52(4):225–230. doi: 10.1016/0091-6749(73)90060-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Christensen L. T., Schmidt C. D., Robbins L. Pigeon breeders' disease--a prevalence study and review. Clin Allergy. 1975 Dec;5(4):417–430. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1975.tb01881.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Edwards J. H., Wagner J. C., Seal R. M. Pulmonary responses to particulate materials capable of activating the alternative pathway of complement. Clin Allergy. 1976 Mar;6(2):155–164. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1976.tb01893.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Elgerfors B., Belin L., Hanson L. A. Pigeon breeder's lung. Clinical and immunological observations. Scand J Respir Dis. 1971;52(3):167–176. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Faux J. A., Hendrick D. J., Anand B. S. Precipitins to different avaian serum antigens in bird fancier's lung and coeliac disease. Clin Allergy. 1978 Mar;8(2):101–108. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1978.tb00455.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Faux J. A., Holford-Strevens V., Wells I. D., Pepys J. 'False positive' precipitation reactions to extracts of organic dusts due to a teichoic acid from S. aureus. Techniques. Clin Exp Immunol. 1970 Dec;7(6):897–902. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Fink J. N., Schlueter D. P., Sosman A. J., Unger G. F., Barboriak J. J., Rimm A. A., Arkins J. A., Dhaliwal K. S. Clinical survey of pigeon breeders. Chest. 1972 Sep;62(3):277–281. doi: 10.1378/chest.62.3.277. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hargreave F. E., Pepys J., Longbottom J. L., Wraith D. G. Bird breeder's (fancier's) lung. Lancet. 1966 Feb 26;1(7435):445–449. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(66)91454-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Madsen D., Klock L. E., Wenzel F. J., Robbins J. L., Schmidt C. D. The prevalence of farmer's lung in an agricultural population. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1976 Feb;113(2):171–174. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1976.113.2.171. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- REED C. E., BARBEE R. A. PIGEON-BREEDERS' LUNG: A NEWLY OBSERVED INTERSTITIAL PULMONARY DISEASE. JAMA. 1965 Jul 26;193:261–265. doi: 10.1001/jama.1965.03090040005001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]