Altered immune responses in broiler chicken husbandry workers and their association with endotoxin exposure

Abstract

Exposure to bioaerosols in indoor animal farms associates with respiratory illnesses, but little is known about the immune modulation to chicken farmers. This study aimed to compare the general immunity of chicken farmers with those of control subjects with non-agricultural jobs. Blood taken from the farmers and controls was subjected to plasma IgE and IgG subclass measurements. Isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were stimulated and cytokine production was measured. Indoor total and respirable dust levels and their endotoxin (LPS) and aflatoxin (AF) levels in the farms were measured. In total, 29 chicken farmers on 19 farms and 14 age- and sex-matched office workers participated. Hematological differences were not observed. The farmers tended to have higher serum IgE and IgG subclass levels with significance for IgG1. The cytokines released by PBMC from farmers indicated skewing toward Type-2 helper T-cell responses: interferon (IFN)-γ:interleukin (IL)-4 and IFNγ:IL-13 ratios were significantly lower than for control PBMC. The farms had 707.1 EU/m3 LPS in total dust, and 15.8 EU/m3 LPS in respirable dust. Farmers exhibited immune skewing towards allergic immune responses that correlated with the LPS levels on their farms. Chicken farmers may be at risk of respiratory allergies due to occupational endotoxin exposure.

Exposure to farm environment and its correlations with total IgE, IL-13, and IL-33 serum levels in patients with atopy and asthma

“…After stimulation, a greater increase was observed in the nonfarmer group. 14 The results of this study are only partially consistent with ours; it seems that the main problem is the small size of study groups.…”

“…Chicken breeders had a threefold higher serum IgE level, but statistical significance was not reached. 14 Farming lifestyle in the first year of life was associated with decreased serum IgE concentration. Other study assessing total IgE levels in the serum of Danish agricultural school students showed significantly lower levels of this immunoglobulin in those who spent their childhood on a farm, both compared to farm residents growing up out of farm and those from the countryside who never lived on a farm.…”

Effects of Dietary Ferulic Acid on Intestinal Health and Ileal Microbiota of Tianfu Broilers Challenged with Lipopolysaccharide

“…The gastrointestinal tract is an essential organ for nutrient absorption and a fundamental protective barrier against incursions of bacteria, pathogens, and toxins; therefore, maintaining intestinal homeostasis is of great importance [ 29 ]. There is increasing evidence that suggests LPS, a common toxin in the poultry industry [ 30 ], leads to loss of body weight [ 31 ], intestinal epithelium injury [ 32 ], increased intestinal permeability [ 33 , 34 ], and microflora dysbiosis [ 35 ]. Bioactive agents with various biological benefits [ 36 ], such as FA, may represent an interesting solution.…”

Production of pro-inflammatory mediators stimulated by exposure of poultry house workers to airborne dust particulates

“…Despite the use of increasingly modern poultry farming systems, its presence in farm buildings is still associated with significant human pulmonary exposure to dust-derived microorganisms and their by-products. In the present study, particulate aerosol concentrations (understood here as inhaleable fraction of dust) determined in poultry house, did not differ in their levels from the concentrations determined in this type of work environment by other researchers (proper value ranges are given in parentheses) in: Spain (0.03-15.2 mg/m 3 ) [6,15], Switzerland (0.42-21.75 mg/m 3 ) [45], The Netherlands (4-4.4 mg/m 3 ) [46], Croatia (1.8-4.8 mg/m 3 ) [47], Sweden (1.76-5.17 mg/m 3 ) [48], USA (0.03-5.58 mg/m 3 ) [49][50][51][52], China (0.17-9.61 mg/m 3 ) [53], Korea (0.53-31.5 mg/m 3 ) [54][55][56], Pakistan (0.66-1.56 mg/m 3 ) [13], Iran (2-5.4 mg/m 3 ) [57], Saudi Arabia (2.11-18.11 mg/m 3 ) [58], Egypt (0.63-3.13 mg/ m 3 ) [43], South Africa (1.16-57.52 mg/m 3 ) [44], and were almost on the same level as in an earlier study performed by the authors of the current study in poultry houses in southern Poland (0.03-4.51 mg/m 3 ) [58]. However, some measurements carried out in the USA [59] and China [60] revealed much higher inhalable poultry dust levels in chicken farms, reaching 92.4 mg/m 3 and 230 mg/m 3 , respectively.…”

“…The hitherto obtained endotoxin concentrations in the poultry farm environment present a rather consistent picture of such pollution which in individual countries on different continents reaches the following values (adjusted from EU/ m 3 to ng/m 3 using 10 EU equal to 1 ng as conversion factor): in Switzerland (18.99-1,634.8 ng/m 3 ) [45], United Kingdom (0.02-76.2 ng/m 3 ) [67,68], The Netherlands (45.22-469.3 ng/m 3 ) [46,67], Denmark (116.6-139.7 ng/m 3 ) [67], Sweden (10-1,003 ng/m 3 ) [48,66], France (3.5-315.6 ng/m 3 ) [64], Germany (1.98-6,434.7 ng/m 3 ) [67,69], Korea (0.16-251 ng/m 3 ) [54][55][56]70], Iran (5.4-23.6 ng/m 3 ) [57], and the USA (13.5-1,360 ng/m 3 ) [49,51,67]. Endotoxin concentrations measured in earlier research by the authors of this study, performed in poultry houses in southern Poland, were at much higher levels (0.04-8,364 ng/m 3 ) [58] than those noted in the current study.…”