The underdiagnosed
feather duvet lung, an
extrinsic allergic alveolitis (
hypersensitivity pneumonitis) caused by duck and goose feathers, can be more frequently diagnosed, if duck and goose feather
antibodies are included in the panel of the routinely applied
IgG antibody screening test. This does not necessarily require extending the screening test to include duck and goose feather
antigens. By analysing 100 sera with duck and goose
antibodies we found that the commonly used pigeon and budgerigar
antibodies can also screen for feather duvet
antibodies. All examined sera lacking pigeon and budgerigar
antibodies also lacked clear-cut duck and goose feather
antibodies. The examined sera with strong pigeon or budgerigar
antibodies always also contained feather duvet
antibodies. However, sera with medium or low concentrated pigeon or budgerigar
antibodies are not always associated with feather duvet
antibodies. In the light of these observations, we find that 71% of the duck and goose antibody analyses would be dispensable without essential loss of quality, if the results of screening for pigeon and budgerigar
antibodies were incorporated into the procedure of a step-by- step diagnostics.