A link between Farm Animals and Chrones Disease?

Some recent research suggests that Early exposure to farm animals lowers the risk of Chrones Disease or ulcerative colitis (IBD)

The conclusions of a German study published in the journal Pediatrics say that if you are exposed to farm animals often when a child or baby you are less likely than others to develop Chrones disease or ulcerative colitis during your childhood. This is according to the findings .

Chrones Disease in Germany
In Germany there are over 10000 children and young adults who suffer from either chrones disease or ulcerative colitis (inflammatory bowel disease / IBD) according to Dr. Katja Radon at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich.

Chrones Disease in the first world
In industrialized countries like the UK, Germany and the USA, there has been a recent increase in Crohn's disease (a type of inflammatory bowel disease) suggests that there are environmental factors that contribute to chrones disease.

The German team examined the link between contact with farm animals as a baby and the development of Chrones disease or ulcerative colitis in childhood. The findings were analysed for 748 people with IBD, 444 with Chrones disease, 304 with ulcerative colitis and 1,481 healthy children who were used as the control.

The restults showed that the children with inflammatory bowel disease were more likely than the control children to live in urban areas and regular contact with farm animals during the first year of life was inversely associated with IBD, the investigators report.

The children with chrones disease or ulcerative colitis were about 50 percent less likely to have regular contact with farm animals in infancy compared with the healthy children.So these findings seem to indicate that contact with farm animal during infancy is one of the major factors protecting children against allergies and might also decrease the risk of Chrones Disease or ulcerative colitis in children Radon's team concludes. The findings also back up the theory that allergic diseases and IBD might have similar paths of development.

Chrones Disease source: Pediatrics, August 2007.