Allergy to hamster - 4 case reports

Background Hamsters are increasingly popular as domestic pets. Different species can be found in the domestic setting: the Syrian (golden) hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus), the Siberian hamster (Phodopus sungorus) and the Rhoborovski hamster (Phodopus roborovskii). Several cases of asthma upon contact with hamsters and anaphylaxis following hamster bites have been described, but the allergen(s) responsible are either unidentified or poorly characterized. In the Syrian hamster, salivary lipocalins were found to be specifically expressed in male submandibular glands. MSP (male specific submandibular salivary gland protein) is detectable in saliva as two major forms of 20.5 and 24 kDa. The objectives of the present study were to determine if MSP is an allergen, to analyse IgE reactive proteins in different hamster fur extracts and to determine patient reactivity to different extracts.