The Swedish study showed that more the number of pets a child is around, reduces the risk of their getting asthma, hay fever or eczema. Being in company of pets as children can train the immune system of the child by exposing them to microbes and bacteria the authors explain.
The team of researchers noted that children aged 7 to 9 years who were around four pets in their households when they were babies were half as likely (17 percent) to have an episode of allergy recently compared to children who were never exposed to pets (33 percent). This is the first study that shows that more number of pets mean lesser risk of allergies explained Bill Hesselmar, paediatrician at the University of Gothenburg and one of the authors of this study.
Allergy Therapeutics (LON:AGY) is an international commercial biotechnology group focused on the treatment and diagnosis of allergic disorders, including immunotherapy vaccines that have the potential to cure disease. The Group sells proprietary and third-party products from its subsidiaries in nine major European countries and via distribution agreements in an additional fourteen countries. Its broad pipeline of products in clinical development include vaccines for grass, tree and house dust mite, and peanut allergy vaccine in pre-clinical development. Adjuvant systems to boost performance of vaccines outside allergy are also in development.
