farmer's lung

farm·er's lung .fär-mərz- n an acute pulmonary disorder that is characterized by sudden onset, fever, cough, expectoration, and breathlessness and that results from the inhalation of dust from moldy hay or straw

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an occupational lung disease caused by allergy to fungal spores that grow in inadequately dried stored hay, straw, or grain, which then becomes mouldy. It is an allergic alveolitis, such as also results from sensitivity to many other allergens. An acute reversible form can develop a few hours after exposure; a chronic form, with the gradual development of irreversible breathlessness, occurs with or without preceding acute attacks. Avoidance of the allergen is the main principle of treatment, but most farmers are able to continue to farm by taking appropriate precautions.

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a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis caused by inhalation of moldy hay dust, characterized by breathlessness with cyanosis or with a dry cough, anorexia, and weight loss. It is most often associated with inhalation of spores of Saccharopolyspora rectivirgula or Thermoactinomyces vulgaris. Called also thresher's l. and harvester's l. See also farmer's lung disease of cattle.