Respiratory symptoms and bronchial reactivity among pig and dairy farmers.

Abstract

ratory symptoms and bronchial reactivity among pig and dairy farmers. Scand J Work Environ Health 1994;20:48-54. OBJECTI VES -This study assessed the prevalence of respiratory manifestations among French pig and dairy farmers and determined the relationship between bronchial reactivity and respiratory manifestations. METHODS -The pig farmers included 102 men working more than halftime inside swine confinement buildings. There were 51 male dairy farmers and 81 male referents. The demographic characteristics of the three groups were similar except for more smokers among the referents. Each subject completed a standardized questionnaire. Pulmonary function tests were performed before and after a methacholine challenge (cumulative doses 80, 240, and 560 ug), Airborne dust, ammonia, and carbon dioxide were measured inside 28 swine confinement buildings. RESULTS -The pig farmers were exposed to a total dust level of 2.4 I mg . nr-'. The respirable particle concentration was low. The pig and dairy farmers had a significantly higher prevalence of cough and morning phlegm than the referents. Before the methacholine challenge, the dairy farmers had nonsignificantly lower mean lung function values than the other groups. Among the subjects with no history of asthma, nonspecific bronchial hyperreactivity was significantly higher among the pig and dairy farmers than among the referents. There was a fall in the forced expiratory volume in I s (FEY, ,) that was greater than 10% in 6.7% of the referents, 17.9% of the swine workers, and 35.6% of the~airy farmers. This result was unchanged after adjustment for the initial FEV] o: CONCLUSIONS -The prevalence of respiratory symptoms was significantly higher among the pig' farmers without base-line lung function impairment. However, both the pig and the dairy farmers had increased bronchial reactivity.Key terms: agricultural workers, epidemiology, occupational airborne exposure.Epidemiol ogic studi es have demonst rated an increased ri sk of respiratory dysfunction am ong farmers (1---4) and, especially, am ong workers in swine co nfinement building s (5-24). Th ese studi es iden-

Pet- and pollen-induced upper airway symptoms in farmers and in nonfarmers

“…The low prevalence of chronic bronchitis among the farmers was especially surprising, since this symptom is probably most consistently found to be associated with farming [9][10][11][12][13][14]. One explanation for the current finding is that chronic bronchitis is especially associated with pig farming [14,25,26] and very few farmers of the present study worked in piggeries.…”

“…One explanation for the current finding is that chronic bronchitis is especially associated with pig farming [14,25,26] and very few farmers of the present study worked in piggeries. In addition, this study was restricted to females, whereas the previous studies showing the association between farming and chronic bronchitis have included either exclusively [9,10] or predominantly [11][12][13] males.…”

“…Several studies have confirmed that the prevalence of cough, phlegm production, shortness of breath and organic dust toxic syndrome (ODTS) are higher in farmers than in the nonfarming population [9][10][11][12][13][14]. The situation with UAS is less clear.…”

Bronchial hyperresponsiveness and exposure in pig farmers

“…A limited number of studies has been published on the role of bronchial responsiveness. With a few exceptions [15,26,27] most of these were based on small numbers [7,13,29,35,36,48,54] and/or one-dose provocation protocols, in which no degree of response can be assessed [4,45,47], None of the studies on bronchial responsiveness have so far dealt with associ 328 ations between exposure of the pig fanner and the prevalence of hyperresponsiveness. If such associations can be demonstrated, this provides clues for prevention.…”

Occupational asthma in newly employed workers in intensive swine confinement facilities

“…Respiratory symptoms [1][2][3], reductions in mean and across shift lung-function values [1,[4][5][6] and increased bronchial responsiveness [3,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] have been described in exposed workers and in naïve volunteers exposed to intensive swine production facilities. In addition to this, SUNDBLAD et al [13] demonstrated that exhaled nitric oxide (NO) increased following exposure only when a half mask was not worn, despite both groups (those wearing and those not wearing a mask) showing increased bronchial responsiveness, suggesting that the two outcome measures reflect different aspects of airway inflammation.…”