Preventing the development of asthma in children.

Chronic coughing, shortness of breath, choking – about one in ten children is affected by these asthma symptoms. But some environmental influences ensure that this disease does not occur in the first place: growing up on a traditional farm, for example.

We understood what conditions this protection; namely, spending time in the cowshed and drinking raw cow's milk. Both train children's immune systems and gut microbiome, the microorganisms in their digestive organs, early on in life. As a result, a misguided immune response to normal environmental components - an allergy - does not develop in the first place. In addition, early contact improves defense against viruses, a second important trigger for asthma.

We are researching how we can also offer this protection to children who do not grow up on a farm. One approach is to give them minimally treated cow's milk at a young age, and another relies on a nasal spray with purified components of dust from the cowshed.

These studies are a big step towards asthma prevention, providing the protective effect of the farm to all children, no matter where they live.

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