Are wild pigons the cause of a childs asthma?
A 3.5 year old girl with probable asthma reports (via mum) significantly increased symptoms when she lives in her flat which has lots of surrounding wild pigeons, sometimes flying into house, frequently using and soiling the balcony. She has recently been admitted to our HDU with her asthma. I do not think she had evidence of acute psitticosis, and nor is her history/exam/CXR supportive of allergic alveolitis.
My question is: are there any investigations I can do to demonstrate that her worsening asthma is related to pigeons? I have enquired after skin prick tests but to no avail. I am aware that I could do avian pptns but am unsure how this would relate to asthma? I believed it more relevant to allergic alveolitis?
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Asthma fro pigeons is surprisingly uncommon and would be an unlikely cause for asthma related to a particular flat. It is much more likely that there is an alternative source of the asthma in the flat if her asthma is worse there. Animals and moulds in particular. I don’t think that IgG antibodies to pigeons will help much. Some commercial pigeon antigens are from the droppings which contain many fungal and bacterial antigens and often confuse the picture. It is possible to measure IgG to pigeon serum which overcomes cross-reactivity problems. I don’t think anybody has a good IgE assay to pigeon serum (the main antigen from pigeon is an IgA present in the bloom)
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