Respiratory diseases and allergy in farmers working with livestock: a EAACI position paper

Sigsgaard, T.; Basinas, I.; Doekes, G.; de Blay, F.; Folletti, I.; Heederik, D.; Lipinska-Ojrzanowska, A.; Nowak, D.; Olivieri, M.; Quirce, S.; Raulf, M.; Sastre, J.; Schlünssen, V.; Walusiak-Skorupa, J.; Siracusa, A.

doi:10.1186/s13601-020-00334-x

Clinical and Translational Allergy

Table 6 Literature reported engineering and production parameters affecting personal exposures of farmers to bio-aerosols

From: Respiratory diseases and allergy in farmers working with livestock: a EAACI position paper

Determinant	Substance	Factor	Estimated effect	Source
Pigs
Environment	Dust, endotoxin	Season, summer	Lower levels of exposure compared to winter	[43, 124, 126, 129]
Environment	Dust, endotoxin	Outdoor temperature	18–36% decrease in levels per 10 °C increase in temperature	[43, 124]
Production stage	Dust	Finishing units	Exposures highest in finishing and/or weaning stables and lowest in farrowing and/or breading.	[166, 167]
Ventilation	Dust	Negative pressure	lower exposures compared with neutral or mixed methods by 26–50%	[43]
	Dust, endotoxin	Air exhaust via other compartments or the pit	Increased exposures relative to when characteristic not present by 28–42%	[124]
	Endotoxin	Use of a showering system	7% increase of exposure per 10 min spent on presence of characteristic	[43]
Feeding	Dust	Automatic feeding	Lower exposures with increased time spent on presence	[124]
	Dust, endotoxin	Wet feed	Lower levels when compared with dry feed by 21–79%	[43, 124]
	Dust	Fat in feed	Increased fat content associated with lower levels of exposure	[132]
	Dust	Ad libitum feeding	5% increase in levels per 10 min spent on presence of the characteristic	[43]
Flooring	Endotoxin	Full slatted floor	Full slatted floor associated with increased exposure levels by 50% compared with a full concrete or 16% for every 10 min spent on presence	[43, 124]
	Dust	Fully concrete floor	Fully concrete floor associated with 21% decrease in dust exposure	[124]
	Endotoxin	floor heating	38% increase in exposures per 10 min spent on presence	[124]
General hygiene	Dust, endotoxin	Very dusty stable	7–18% increased exposure compared to a non-dusty environment	[124]
General hygiene	Dust	Wet floor	Reduced levels compared to dry floor by 12%	[168]
Other	Dust	Ventilation and floor, and manure type combinations	Exposures lowest in natural ventilated buildings with slatted floors. Highest exposures in mechanically ventilated buildings with scrapper manure collection.	[169]
Cattle
Environment	Endotoxin	Outdoor temperature	≥ 18% decrease in levels per 10oC increase in temperature	[111, 119, 128]
Feeding	Endotoxin	Semi-automatic system	42% reduction compared to manual feeding	[111]
Feeding	Dust	Amount of feed (pellet, meal)	2% increase in exposure per kg distributed	[111]
Bedding	Dust, endotoxin, glucans	Compost bedding	Compost bedding associated with higher exposures compared to rubber mats by 5% for dust and 179 to 400% for the constituents	[114, 135]
Animal density	Dust, endotoxin, bovine allergens	Surface area per cow	Increased surface associated with decreased levels of exposure by 7 to 65%	[114, 115, 135]
Manure handling	Dust	Automatic scrapers in alley ways	40% reduction compared to when system not used	[128]
Manure handling	Endotoxin	Slope or back flashed system in pit	175% increase compared to round or scraper based systems	[128]
Milking	Dust, glucans, bovine allergens	Robot	Robots associated to increased exposure compared to parlour milking by 22–86% for dust and 138% for glucans but decreased exposures to bovine allergens by 65%.	[114, 128, 135]
General hygiene	Dust, endotoxin	Parlour cleaning	Increased frequency of parlor cleaning associated with lower levels of dust and endotoxin	[170]
Poultry
Environment	Dust, endotoxin	Season, summer	Somewhat lower levels of exposure compared to winter for layers, and turkey farmers	[133, 134]
Barn system	Dust, endotoxin	Floor (aviary)	Floor (Aviary) housing system results in higher concentrations relatively to cage housing	[165, 171, 172]
Barn system	Dust	Enclosed system	Higher exposures in systems that are enclosed (only mechanical ventilated) compared to those being open with both mechanical and natural ventilation present	[134]
Production stage	Dust, endotoxin	Flock age	Increased flock age associated with decreased exposures	[129, 134, 164]
	Dust, endotoxin	Parent stock	Levels in parent stock farm higher compared to broiler and layers	[134]
	Dust, endotoxin	Hen (Turkey)	Levels in hen stables higher compared to those of toms and brooders	[133]
Ventilation	Dust, endotoxin	Ventilation rate	Increased ventilation rate related to decreased levels of exposure	[133]
General hygiene	Dust, endotoxin	Litter presence in control alleys	Presence of litter in control alleys assoc. with higher exposures compared to no presence	[134]
Other	Dust, endotoxin	Tilling of litter	Performance of litter tilling related with increased levels of exposure	[133]

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ISSN: 2045-7022

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