Triticale allergy in a farmer.

We present the case of a 29-year-old farmer with hay fever and atopic dermatitis since adolescence who had developed work-related asthma about 5 years earlier. He was sensitized to grass pollen, wheat and rye flour, dust from the floors of the animal facilities (cows and pigs) and grain barn, and a battery of animal feed from his farm. Work-relatedness of his asthma was demonstrated by serial measurements of spirometry and fractional exhaled nitric oxide at work and during a holiday. Immunoblot analyses revealed dominant IgE-binding to grass pollen and triticale (a hybrid of rye and wheat). IgE inhibition experiments demonstrated that sensitization to triticale was not due to cross-reactivity to grass pollen. Testing of specific IgE-antibodies to recombinant wheat allergens showed sensitizations to profilin, peroxidase, and nonspecific lipid transfer proteins type I subfamily 9.1 and 9.7. We conclude that triticale allergy may occur as a distinct allergy in farmers. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:501-505, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.