1973). British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 30, 259-265. Chest symptoms and farmer's lung: a community survey. Farmer's lung is one of the commonest causes of extrinsic allergic alveolitis, but there have been few studies of representative samples of farmers. A survey was carried out in Devon among 91 farmers and their families in order to estimate the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and of positive precipitin reactions to thermophilic fungi. Answers to a questionnaire about respiratory

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... mptoms and smoking habits revealed among the men a prevalence of symptoms comparable with that found in other surveys of agricultural populations in the United Kingdom but with a lower proportion of smokers. A positive answer to a question about attacks of breathlessness associated with fever or shivering appeared to differentiate people suffering from farmer's lung. Twenty-three per cent of the population had precipitins to Micropoly3pora faeni and two of these individuals also had precipitins to other fungi. There were statistically significant differences in the proportions of positive precipitin tests found in smokers, ex-smokers, and non-smokers. Six known cases of farmer's lung were included in the sample and all had positive precipitins. Farmer's lung is an occupational disease due to inhalation of dust of mouldy hay or of other mouldy vegetable matter. Since the first description of farmer's lung in the United Kingdom (Campbell, 1932) features of the disorder have been more clearly defined. Fuller (1953) summarized its clinical course and Pepys et al (1963) and Pepys, Longbottom, and Jenkins (1964) reported the association with specific antibody response to thermophilic actinomycetes and particularly Micropolyspora faeni. The relation between the acute and chronic phase was clarified by Hapke, Seal, and Thomas (1968), who noted that disability due to farmer's lung might have an insidious onset and that co-workers of farmer's lung patients had a higher prevalence of precipitins against M. faeni than the general population. Wenzel, Gray, and Emanuel (1970) have shown that a number of cases of ill-defined chest disease in farmers were accompanied by positive serological tests for M. faeni. Boyd (1971) reported a survey which included a random sample of 50 farmers without respiratory symptoms and found none with a positive gel-diffusion test. He contrasted his findings with those of Pepys and Jenkins (1965), who reported a prevalence of 18 % of precipitating antibodies in healthy farmers. Grant et al (1972) carried out a pilot survey in order to determine the prevalence of farmer's lung in Scotland but investigated extensively only those persons selected on the basis of compatible symptoms and occupational exposure. As Fuller (1953) reported, the disease has been recognized for some years in Devon, and in the winter of 1969-70, co-workers of 10 known cases of farmer's lung in one area of Devon were investigated. There were 17 co-workers and five of these had positive precipitins against M. faeni but no obvious disability. As the information concerning farmer's lung and the presence of associated precipitins among groups of farmers is limited and conflicting, a population survey was planned in 1970 with three objectives: (1) to determine the prevalence of chest symptoms 259 on 23 July 2018 by guest. Protected by copyright.