Allergy to quail's egg without allergy to chicken's egg. Case report

INTRODUCTION: We present a case of quail's egg allergy without allergy to chicken's egg. CASE: Girl of 10.5 years old who presents anaphylactic reaction after she ate an uncooked quail's egg. She had eaten boiled quail's egg before. She eats chicken's eggs without clinical symptoms. METHODS: We made a prick to chicken's egg and prick-by-prick to uncooked quail's and raw chicken's egg. We determined specific IgE to chicken's egg; electrophoresis and IgE by immunoblot to eggs from chicken, duck, goose, and quail. RESULTS: We obtained negative results to prick, prick-by-prick and specific IgE to chicken's egg. Prick-by-prick to quail's egg was positive. By immunoblot we recognised a protein in quail's egg white, which is ovotransferrin without any similar bands in other species' eggs. CONCLUSIONS: The protein that we recognised is a specific protein of quail's egg. These proteins did not cross-react with proteins of chicken's egg. Cooking may degrade such proteins.