Allergy to poultry meat is rare and a‚ects both chil-dren and adults. ƒe prevalence of poultry meat allergy is unknown, but presumably is similar to
that of red meat allergy. ƒere is no close relation-ship between allergy to poultry meat and allergy to red meat. Poultry meat allergy may present as pri-mary (genuine) food allergy or as secondary food allergy resulting from cross-reactivity.Secondary poultry meat allergy may arise in the context of bird-egg-syndrome, which is due to sen-sitization to serum albumins present in many tis sues including muscle tissue and egg yolk (Gal d 5). Primary sensitization to serum albumin may hap-pen via the respiratory tract through exposure to pet birds (mainly in adults) or within the context of egg allergy in early childhood. Due to the heat la-bility of serum albumins, reactions are oŒen limited to the skin upon contact with raw meat. Symptoms from meat ingestion are rare and mostly mild, whereas systemic reactions are common aŒer inges-tion of raw or soŒ-boiled egg yolk. Primary poultry meat allergy is mainly seen in adolescents and young adults, though hypersensi-tivity may have started already at (pre)school age. Egg allergy is usually absent. Typical symptoms of primary poultry meat allergy include OAS (±dys-pnea), gastrointestinal complaints, urticaria and an-gioedema. Severe anaphylaxis with cardiovascular symptoms is rare. Chicken and turkey meat are highly cross-reactive and responsible for most reac-tions, while duck and goose meat causes milder or no symptoms. Soups, sausages, and ham represent
relevant allergen sources, too. Patients with poultry meat allergy unexpectedly oŒen su‚er from con-comitant allergy to ”sh and possibly shrimp. Serum speci”c IgE against ”sh and shrimp is found in re-spectively 60 and 40 % of sera, suggestive of cross-re-active allergens in these foods. ƒe allergens thus far recognized in genuine poultry meat are LMW proteins of 5–25 kDa. One of them has been identi-”ed as α-parvalbumin cross-reactive with homolo-gous mammal α-parvalbumins but not with ”sh α-parvalbumins. Recently, myosin light chains, in-cluding 23 kDa MLC-1 (Gal d 7) and 15 kDa MLC-3, have been recognized as new major allergens in chicken meat. ƒe high similarity of chicken MLCs with those from various ”sh species (~65 %) might explain the clinical association of poultry meat allergy with ”sh allergy.