[Laboratory animals allergy]

A quarter of employees in an animal care unit will develop allergic reaction to animal dander, urine or blood. Exposure time before start of symptoms ranges from a half to two years. Initially the subjects suffer from rhinitis and conjunctivitis, later one half will suffer from asthma too. The patient often react to several allergens from different animals. Prevention include safe handling of animals, using hand protection and masks. The animals will have to be placed away from the laboratory workers. Treatment of the allergic workers include symptomatic drugs, but there will still exist a risk of progression to asthma, and sensitization to other laboratory animals. Desensitization can be tried, but the results are until now rather unpredictable and good extracts are often not available.