Immunological aspects of respiratory allergy in budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) fanciers

Abstract

Summary Precipitins against budgerigar serum proteins were not found in subjects without budgerigars or in healthy budgerigar fanciers. In budgerigar fanciers with respiratory disease, precipitins were found in sixteen out of nineteen suffering from allergic alveolitis, in four out of fourteen with asthma and two others in whom other respiratory diseases had been diagnosed. Specific IgE to budgerigar serum proteins was present in the atopic subjects with asthma due to budgerigar allergen but not in the nonatopic subjects with allergic alveolitis. Haemagglutination tests corresponded with the precipitin tests. Radio‐immunoelectrophoretic tests showed that the precipitins belonged in the IgG, IgM and IgA classes. The presence of precipitins in budgerigar fanciers was closely associated with the presence of respiratory disease.