Arthropods are a documented cause of occupational allergy in cereal stores. Since the current allergenic risk of various arthropods in grain stores is not known, we evaluated its extent using data from the Czech Republic (CZ). We surveyed 514 grain storage units for pest composition and density. Recalculating literature data we established 4 density dependent classes of pooled mite "allergy-risk level" (ARL) in stored grain: (i) safe-ARL: 0 mites.g(-1) grain, (ii) low-ARL: up to 1 mite.g(-1) grain, (iii) high-ARL: from 1 to 5 mites.g(-1) grain, (iv) danger-acute asthma-ARL: higher than 5 mites.g(-1) grain. Farmers (15) were questioned for pest taxon-related pesticide treatments. Mites constituted the largest group of collected pests (92%) followed by psocids (5%), beetles (3%) and moths (0%). 60% of mites belonged to known allergen producing species; the most abundant were Acarus siro, A. faris, Tyrophagus putrescentiae and Lepidoglyphus destructor. Grain samples belonged to the established ARL classes as follows: (i) safe-ARL: 37% (ii) low-ARL: 53%; (iii) high-ARL: 6%; (iv) danger-acute asthma-ARL: 4%. The enquiry among farmers revealed that almost no pesticides were targeted solely to control mites. This study suggests that mites represent, due to their allergenic potential, density and frequency, the most serious source of allergens in stored grain in CZ. However, the medical aspect of pest control--such as allergy avoidance strategy--is overlooked since grain feeding insects were mostly chemically controlled, regardless of their relatively low density and allergen production in comparison with mites.
- MeSH
- alergeny MeSH
- členovci imunologie růst a vývoj MeSH
- financování organizované MeSH
- hmyz imunologie růst a vývoj MeSH
- hodnocení rizik MeSH
- hustota populace MeSH
- imunoglobulin E krev MeSH
- jedlá semena parazitologie MeSH
- kontaminace potravin analýza MeSH
- kontrola škůdců metody MeSH
- kožní testy MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- manipulace s potravinami MeSH
- nemoci z povolání epidemiologie etiologie imunologie MeSH
- nemoci zemědělců epidemiologie etiologie imunologie MeSH
- prevalence MeSH
- respirační alergie epidemiologie etiologie imunologie MeSH
- roztoči imunologie růst a vývoj MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Česká republika MeSH