[A case of semi-delayed hypersensitivity to dry sausage dust]

The authors record a case of semi-delayed hypersensitivity to sausage dust in an employee of a wholesale pork butcher and curing business. The symptoms combined cough and fever with rigors; there were no clinical or laboratory data to suggest alveolar disease. The immunoallergic "work-up" suggested a precipitin mediated disease with notably 10-14 precipitation arcs to the products of sausage sweepings. A microbiological analysis of the flora of the sausages, as well as an extensive search for precipitins and cutaneous tests have not enabled us to confirm the antigen responsible with certainty.