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| Posted | Freeze Dried Bloodworm Allergy Warning |
| 13-01-2008 09:22 by yanton |
Most hobbyists use freeze dry bloodworm to fish with no problems whatsoever. But some of us can develop serious alergy to the food that usually tends to get progressively worse.
I wondered why a few minutes after feeding fish, i had sneezing episodes and constant runny nose, plus some cuoghing - for an hour after feeding my fish. Finally i isolated freeze dried bloodworm as the cause. A real shame as all my fish love this food, and it has great nutrition for them. I have found the allergy progressively getting worse - originally a slight runny nose, but had a bad reaction this morning, finding my airways constricted and harder to breathe. So after some research found how serious this can be. It can lead to an Anaphylactic Reaction - and that can kill you. So my bloodworm is now binned - sorry fish. Here are a few comments from other sources on this subject (which also show this extends to frozen bloodworm): "... I am new here but have had allergies to bloodworms for sometime now. The worst ones are the freeze dried, if I get a wiff of those god help me. I cannot see at all. The frozen ones are fine as long as I don't touch them. I have them broken into small pieces in the freezer and when I need some I just use a spoon a scoop out what I need. Another thing is if I let them unthaw on a plate then feed them I am in trouble and i don't even have to touch them then. I just place what I need frozen into my worm holder in the tank." "Medical scientists have described an allergen found in bloodworms that may affect fishkeepers. The paper, which has just been published in the Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology, describes the case of a 23-year old Spanish patient who became ill after feeding bloodworms to his fish. His symptoms, which included a rash, rhinoconjunctivitis (a combination of rhinitis and conjunctivitis), breathlessness and difficulty swallowing, led to doctors trying to determine the cause of the allergic reaction. After investigating a number of other allergens, ranging from mussel, squid, house dust and dust mites to prawns and mosquitos, the study eventually revealed that the man was allergic to Chironomid midges, and their larvae - bloodworms. The study says that Chironomid allergies are rare and are only seen in those who handle bloodworms used for fish foods." "I've known about the allergy to blood worms for YEARS. When I first told people that I was allergic, I was told I was nuts, it must be something else, they had never heard of such a thing. You will NOT de-sensitize to them, you will do nothing but get worse and worse reactions to the worms which could potentially turn to anaphalactic shock (scuze me if the spelling is wrong), where your throat swells shut, you have seizures and with out a shot within minutes of contact, you will die. This is not a 'scare tactic' to make you quit using them either, this is just the facts. Just something to consider for those of you that KNOW you are allergic and continue to use the product. For a long time, I used frozen because of my reaction to the dried with no effect. Well, that didn't last forever either and I can't even use the frozen any more. The last 2 flats I had I traded for another frozen food. There are plenty of other foods on the market to feed fish with and although I love my fish, they are not worth losing my life for." "I want to post my story to possibly save anyone from going thru the severe symptoms I've been frequently suffering for the past six months! My wife and I have finally figured out what's been causing my symptoms as I'd been having sneezing fits with runny nose, watering/itching eyes, itchy and scratching chin and neck and wheezing breath when I had often been near my aquarium! We had finally noticed last night that the symptoms started about five minutes after I was feeding my fish the freeze-dried blood worms." |
| 13-01-2008 09:23 by yanton |
More information here:
Google : bloodworms allergy |
| 13-01-2008 14:43 by robert.pope |
Intresting read Yanton.
good that you have isolated the cause of your allergy for your own health ! what will you be feeding in place of the bloodworm ? A while back there was some free samples called DragonFeeds on here given away by Aquathrive . I see its for sale in my LLFS and my fish love it . (Did you ever try this dry feed?) |
| 22-01-2008 14:02 by Alan |
I posted a comment on such an allergy a long time ago I have been allergic to bloodworm for in excess of 10 years.
I can certainly sympathise with you the reaction is not pleasant. I do from time to time feed my fish blood worm as a treat but only just before I go to bed so I do not breath in any fumes from the bloodworm. The allergen seems to disperse over night pressumably the protein that causes the allergy is broken down in the tank in that time. Equally when I handle the stuff I have to scrub my hands afterwards to avoid a very nasty rash appearing. Yanton I pressume your doctor is now aware of this I have to say mine is not as I identified the allergen myself along time ago, it all came to a head when I rubbed my eye after feeding bloodworm when I hadn't washed my hands properly my face swelled up I looked like I had been hit in the head by a sledge hammer. It took a week to go down after taking zirtek everyday for a week. A word of warning if you get bitten by a mosquito the reaction will be bad last time I was bitten my hand swelled so much it looked like I was wearing a boxing glove the itching was unbelievable. Incidentally I have never used dried bloodworm only frozen. One other thing before developing this allergy I had no allergies at all I now suffer from dust allergies and hay fever neither are extreme but I suspect the development of these can be attributed to my initial bloodworm allergy. |
| 22-01-2008 14:52 by Alan |
Yanton I have contacted PFK because I think an article on this is in order I can't get involved myself (work) but would you be interested in putting something together?
If so send me a pm with your email address and I will forward it to PFK's editor. |
| 22-01-2008 17:10 by yanton |
Like you, I am fully committed with work. Not enough time to write this article - although important.
I winder how many hobbyists are suffering ... I feel much better now - what i did not realise at the time was the culmulative effect it was having, like a permanent mild flu' |
| 23-01-2008 11:35 by Alan |
That is a good describtion of it my analagy would have been continuous hay fever through out the year.
I get the feeling that this is a very common problem. |
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