Immunology and Allergology >>>> Chicken protein allergy - signs and treatment

Chicken protein allergy - signs and treatment.

Despite the fact that protein food of animal origin is useful and necessary for the body, there are a number of protein structures that can be considered by the immune system as hostile and cause a strong allergic reaction. These proteins include the protein structures of dairy products and the protein structures of the proteins of bird eggs (regardless of the type of bird (chickens, geese, quail, turkeys), egg white will cause allergies if the immune system produces special so-called specific IgE immunoglobulins to it).

A similar type of allergy develops in cases with a minimum, but still content in the recipe, and therefore in the structure of the finished product, of ingredients from egg white. For example, in baked goods, sweets, ice cream, creams, cocktails.

Signs of allergy to chicken protein are revealed in early childhood from one and a half years and older, for example, inflammatory rashes on the skin and mucous membranes, itching, nasal congestion, allergic cough and even allergic bronchitis, digestive disorders (diarrhea, colic, bloating, seething, nausea, or retching). An allergy to chicken protein can be similar to lacrimation or itching of the mucous membrane of the conjunctiva of the eye of an unknown origin, to a banal headache and even to general weakness of the body.

But sometimes such an allergy transforms into a chronic disease of the skin and mucous membranes (atopic dermatitis, diathesis, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis) or into a chronic disease of the respiratory tract (bronchial asthma).

Allergens that make up egg white (Ovotransferrin, Alpha-Livetin, Ovalbumin, Ovomucoid, Lysozyme), not all can withstand heat treatment (boiling or frying). They are destroyed, which makes it possible in some cases to consume chicken protein in the form of boiled or fried eggs, or baked food products containing egg white. But the Ovomucoid protein is not destroyed either by heating or by enzymatic treatment in the gastrointestinal tract with acids, and it is this protein that causes severe allergic reactions: Quincke edema, anaphylactic shock. The unstable and easily degraded components of egg white can also cause an allergic reaction, but with a weakened effect, for example, hives or diathesis.

Ovamucoid protein, when eaten by a nursing mother, is able to penetrate into breast milk, which is the result of an allergy of dairy babies to breast milk.

Egg white can be so allergic that a single breastfeeding is enough to develop a severe enough and very dangerous allergic reaction. That is why nursing mothers should be especially careful about their own diet and diet, if the situation requires it.

Egg whites aren't the only bird allergens. There is a cross-reactivity of the body to the protein of chicken meat (poultry meat - quails, turkeys, geese, ducks, Indo-ducks, including wild representatives of birds that have fallen on the table as hunting prey) and even down and feathers. This is where allergies to down or feather pillows and blankets can come from.

But not only down and feather fillers can become allergens, this also includes dangerous contacts with birds, especially domestic ones, which spread fluff around the cage, which creates the danger of developing allergies in the respiratory tract (the lightest microscopic fluff can enter the respiratory tract when inhaled and provoke an allergic reaction). In such cases, birds do not have pets at home, and do not visit the cages of domestic chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks, quails, pigeons, and also protect a person prone to chicken protein allergy from contact with these birds.

How to identify a chicken protein allergy? For these purposes, there is a study of blood serum for signs of the existence of specific IgE immunoglobulins, which is called "Immunochemiluminescent analysis". And such an analysis should be carried out as early as possible (at the earliest age) so as not to become a victim of the deadly course of an allergic reaction.

Analysis of allergy to chicken protein should be carried out until the moment that will be made major vital immunizations (vaccines), as many vaccines prepared using embryonated eggs, which can create a dangerous situation with vaccination under the conditions of the existence of allergy to chicken protein.

How to treat chicken protein allergy with a diet? There are two opinions of the scientific world on this matter:

Follow a strict diet with the exclusion of allergic foods based on poultry eggs and meat from the diet.
To create the conditions for the body to "get used to" the allergic protein and in small doses, no more than once a week, to consume products containing meat and eggs of poultry, which should gradually reduce to naught severe attacks of allergies, and in the future, completely desensitize the body - to get rid of negative allergic reactions to foods containing eggs and poultry.