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Third International Ragweed ConferenceApril 3rd-4th, 2014, Rho (Milan), Italy

Ambrosia day, 2014 - Ragweed allergy:15 years of preventionApril 4th, 2014, Rho (Milan), Italy

Volume x, 2/2014Mattioli 1885

giornale europeo di aerobiologiamedicina ambientale e infezioni aerotrasmesse

G | E | AEuropean Journal of Aerobiology and Environmental Medicine

issn 1825-2893

OfficialJournalofAIA-ISDE

00-Cop. 2-2014:00-Cop. 2-2009 24-03-2014 10:36 Pagina 3

EDITORIAL BOARD


european journal of aerobiologyand environmetal medicine

G | E | A

Giornale ufficiale dell’Associazione Italiana di Aerobiologia e dell’Associazione Medici per l’Ambiente - ISDE ItaliaOfficial Journal of Italian Association of Aerobiology and of International Society of Doctors for the Environment - ISDE Italy

Mattioli 1885srl - Strada di Lodesana 649/sx,Loc.Vaio - 43036 Fidenza (Parma)tel 0524/530383fax 0524/82537www.mattioli1885.com

DIREZIONE GENERALEDirettore GeneralePaolo Cioni

Vicepresidente eDirettore ScientificoFederico Cioni

DIREZIONE EDITORIALEEditingManagerAnna Scotti

EditingValeria Ceci

Foreign RightsNausicaa Cerioli

SegreteriaManuela Piccinnu

MARKETING E PUBBLICITÀ

DirettoreMarketingLuca Ranzato

Responsabile Area ECMSimone Agnello

Responsabile DistribuzioneMassimiliano Franzoni

ProgectManagerNatalie CerioliMassimo Radaelli

Direttore Scientifico / Editor in ChiefPierpaolo Dall’Aglio (PR)

Comitato di Redazione / Associated EditorsRoberto Romizi (AR)

Comitato Direttivo AIA /Executive Committee AIA

Presidente / PresidentRoberto Albertini (PR)

Past Presidente / Past PresidentGianna Moscato (PV)

Vice Presidente / Vice PresidentAugusto Arsieni (BR)

Segretario/SecretaryGianni Pala (SS)

Tesoriere/TreasurerEmma Tedeschini (PG)

Coordinatore Comitato di Rete/Network Committee Coordinator

Maira Bonini (MI)

Consiglieri / CouncillorsAnna Molinari (LC)Loretta Giuseppina Pace (AQ)Cesira Pasquarella (PR)Giovanna Pasquariello (RM)Vincenzo Patella (SA)Maria Russo (NA)Salvatore Tripodi (RM)Mariateresa Ventura (BA)Mario Zanca (MN)

Vice Direttori /Deputy EditorsRoberto Albertini (PR)Erminia Ridolo (PR)

Direttore Responsabile / Journal DirectorFederico Cioni (PR)

Giunta Esecutiva ISDE/Executive Committee ISDE

Presidente / PresidentRoberto Romizi (AR)

Vice Presidenti / Vice PresidentsRomano Bragheri (PV) (Nord Italia)Maria Grazia Petronio (PI) (Centro Italia)Ferdinando Laghi (CS) (Sud Italia)

Segretario Generale / General SecretaryStefania Borgo (Roma)

Segretario Organizzativo / Organizative SecretaryMarcello Bordiga (AR)

Coordinatore Comitato Tecnico Scientifico / Scientific-TechnicalCommitte Coordinator

Ernesto Burgio (PA)

Tesoriere / TreasurerBartolomeo Terzano (CB)

Responsabile Aspetti Normativi - Documentazione / Regulatory OfficeManagerAntonio Faggioli (BO)

Responsabile attività culturali / Events CoordinatorPaolo Tomatis (TS)

Registrazione Tribunale di ParmaN. 11 dell’11-03-2004

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01-board 2-2014:01-board 2-2009 25-03-2014 13:32 Pagina 2


european journal of aerobiologyand environmetal medicine

I n d i c e Numero 2 / Anno XI n d e x Number 2 / Year X

Third InternationalRagweedConference -April 3rd-4th, 2014,Rho (Milan), Italy

Foreword9 Maira Bonini,MichelThibaudon,Tamas Komives

Third International Ragweed Conference - April 3rd-4th, 2014, Rho (Milan), Italy10 Giorgio Scivoletto

Third International Ragweed Conference and Ambrosia Day 2014 - April 3rd-4th, 2014, Rho (Milan), ItalyPresentazione11 R.Albertini

VIII giornata nazionale del Polline - Associazione Italiana di Aerobiologia

Session IEcological andManagement aspects of ragweedChair:RodolfoGentili,TamasKomives

15 B.Chauvel,Q.MartinezEcological and management aspects of common ragweed

17 N.A.Kachalina,O.E.Arkhipova,Yu.V.TyutyunovWeediness assessment of anthropogenic phytocenoses on the basis of satellite remote sensinge data (a case exampleof common ragweed)

18 P. Stratonovitch, J. Storkey,M.A. SemenovA process-based approach to predicting the effect of climate change on Ambrosia artemisiifolia in Europe

19 M.CristofaroAmbrosia artemisiifolia in Italy: integration of classic biological control approach into a multidisciplinary program

20 R.Gentili, F.Gilardelli, A.Ghiani, S. Ciappetta,M. Bonini, S. CitterioIntensive grassland seeding to control Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. spread

21 P. Reisinger,G. Kukorelli,T. KomivesControlling common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) in sunflower with high efficacy

22 H.Müller-Schärer, S. LommenSustainable management of Ambrosia artemisiifolia in Europe (COST FA1203-SMARTER): opportunitiesand challenges

Session IIAerobiology andmeteorological aspects of ragweed pollenmovementChair:GiuseppeFrenguelli,RobertoAlbertini

25 M.ThibaudonRagweed pollination in Europe

27 L.Hamaoui-Laguel, R.Vautard,N.Viovy,D. Khvorostyanov, A.ColetteModelling of Ambrosia airborne pollen concentrations over Europe

28 A. Pauling, K. Zink,H.Vogel, B.VogelRagweed pollen forecasts based on the numerical dispersion model cosmo-art: concept, processes and performance

29 M.Bonini, B. Šikoparija,M. Prentovic, G. Cislaghi, P. Colombo, L.Grewling,H.Müller-Schärer,M. SmithSeasonal variations in the amount of airborne ragweed pollen in Milan in relation to environmental factors

30 G.Oliver,M.ThibaudonEvolution of ragweed pollination in France

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31 F. ZemmerUpdate on airborne ragweed pollen monitored in Istanbul

Session IIIClinical aspects andgenetic/environmental factors influencing ragweed pollen allergenicityChair:ClaudioOrtolani, SandraCitterio

35 B. Jahn-Schmid, K. Bastl, U. E. Berger,W.Hemmer, R.Asero, F. Ferreira, B. BohleWeed pollen allergy in Austria: cross- and co-sensitization against ragweed and mugwort pollen

36 J.Taller, K.K.Mátyás, E.Nagy, E. Farkas, B. KolicsTowards the isolation of floral and reproduction related genes of the common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.)

37 R.Asero, A.Ghiani, R. Aina,G.Mistrello, R.Gentili, S. CitterioConcomitant sensitization to ragweed and mugwort pollen: a re-evaluation of allergen cross-reactivity in Milan area

38 M.M.Epstein,M.Debiasi, C. B. Anea,G. KarrerTesting allergenicity of Ambrosia artemisiifolia pollen in mice

39 Y.Yair,M. Sibony, A.Goldberg, E. Shahar, B. RubinBiology and allergenicity of Ambrosia spp. (ragweed) in Israel

40 K.Bastl,M.Kmenta, K.-C. Bergmann, B. Sikoparija,M.Thibaudon, S. Jäger, U. BergerSymptom load index in European countries infested by ragweed: comparison of the situation of hay fever sufferers inAustria, Germany, Serbia and France

41 A.Večenaj, A.M.Gospić,M. Perica, I. Banić, J. Živković, D. Plavec,M.TurkaljaRisk for de novo sensitization to ragweed in Croatian children

Session IVRagweed pollen allergy: veterinary aspectsChair:AlessandroGrittini,Roberta Sacchi

45 N. FurianiRagweed pollen allergy: veterinary aspects

SessionVRagweed pollen allergy: public health issuesChair:MairaBonini,MichelThibaudon

49 N.Noisel, J. Lachain,M-S. Cloutier, P. Krzywkowski, E.MassonRagweed pollen allergy and public health issues: insights from recent research

50 A.Oude LansinkPublic and private roles in management of Ambrosia

51 U. Starfinger, U. Sölter, A.Verschwele, the HALTAMBROSIA teamResults of the EU project HALT AMBROSIA

52 M.Thibaudon,G.OliverHealth impact of exposure to ragweed pollen in France

53 A.Gelas,M-A.Chapgier, X.Vitry,M.ThibaudonAssessment of the healthcare costs related to ragweed in Rhone-Alpes region

54 S. Steinbach,A.Champetier de RibesCommon ragweed invasion in Sweden and human health: preliminary results of an impact assessment

SessionVIPosterChair:UweBerger,VictoriaRodinkova

57 C.Déchamp,H.MéonThe assessment of communities ragweed fights by the soil pollen dust flux method

58 B.Konstantinović, B. Konstantinović,M. Popov,N. SamardžićGermination of common ragweed seeds – Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.


59 C. Sindt,G.Oliver,M.Thibaudon,Q.Martinez, B. ChauvelImpact of campaigns to control common ragweed on the pollen production

60 M.Thibaudon,G.OliverHealth impact of exposure to ragweed pollen in France

61 J.T.Damkjær, J. IhlemannDrought impact on short ragweed pollen density: a field perspective

62 V.V. Rodinkova, I.I.Motruk,O.O. PalamarchukRagweed areas and preventive measures in Ukraine

63 D.M.Tóth,G.Kovacsics-Vári, E. Burján, Á. BéniMorphology and vitality of the ragweed pollen grains from agricultural, industrial and ruderal areas

64 R.Albertini,M.Ugolotti, L.Ghillani,M.Adorni, P.Vitali, C. PasquarellaRagweed plants and pollen spreading in Parma,Northern Italy

65 M.Bonini, A.Pini, A.Travaglini,M.Ugolotti, S.Voltolini,M.Zanca, R.AlbertiniDiffusion and trend of ragweed pollen in Italy

66 P.Carnà, C. Ivaldi,M.CalciatiThe impact of meteorological variables on ragweed: data analysis and proposal of a forecasting model for the areawith high pollinic concentrations in Piedmont (Italy)

67 D.Myszkowska, E. Czarnobilska, B.Tokarska-Guzik, I. Kasprzyk, K. Leskiewicz, PANTeamThe problem of ragweed pollen in Krakow against a background of other Polish regions and someallergological aspects

68 L. Pace,M.Casilli, L. Boccacci, P.Di CarloAmbrosia pollen at high altitude (Campo Imperatore-Gran Sasso d’Italia)

69 A. Sulborska, E.Weryszko-Chmielewska, K. Piotrowska-Weryszko, K.Voloshchuk,N. Kalinovych,N.VorobetsComparison of Ambrosia pollen seasons in the air of Lublin (Poland) and Lviv (Ukraine) in 2011-2013

70 E.Weryszko-Chmielewska, A. Sulborska, K. Piotrowska-WeryszkoDynamics of ragweed (Ambrosia spp.) pollen seasons in the conditions of central-eastern Poland

71 V.Ortolani,D. Berra, E. Chiodini,M.GranconatoEffects of weather factors on concentration of ragweed pollen in Busto Arsizio area (Lombardia)

72 A.Travaglini, C. Cappello,M.A. BrighettiObservations on Ambrosia pollen morphology

73 S. Ciappetta,A.Ghiani, R.Gentili,M. Bonini, R. Asero, S. CitterioStudy of intra and inter population genetic variability of common ragweed in relation to amb a 1 isoforms andtheir allergenicity

74 U. Frank,A.E.-Kelish, F. Zhao,W.Heller, P. Braun, J. Durner, J. B.Winkler,M. Engel,M. Pfeifer,C. vonTörne, S.M.Hauck, S.Öder,H. Behrendt,C.Traidl-Hoffmann,D. ErnstCommon ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia): systems biology to understand the reaction of the allergenic pollen toair pollutions and climate change

75 P.L. Pozzi,D. Berra, P. Zanon, E. Chiodini,V.OrtolaniRagweed in Busto Arsizio: since 1986 to date

76 F.-D. PopescuCommon ragweed in the Romanian plain: history of plant identification and actual sensitization prevalence in allergicrhinoconjunctivitis

77 E.Re, B. Bramè, L.MarchionniRagweed allergy in the Legnano area: over 20 years of study

78 V.V. Rodinkova,O.V.Chirka, E.G.Gelman, I.I.Motruk,O.O. PalamarchukRagweed pollen sensitivity among children of central Ukraine

79 M.Bonini, E.Valerio, C.Testoni,M.E.Gattoni, S.Fagnani, P. BotteroFeatures of short-ragweed allergy in NorthWesternMilan area: preliminary results

80 M-A.Chapgier-Laboissière, A.Gelas,G.Alligier,M.ThibaudonSmartphone application for ragweed description in Rhône-Alps

81 G.Manzotti, A. Besozzi, S. Panza,M.DestroTrend of prescription of ragweed immunotherapy over ten years as indirect index of ragweed allergy inTreviglio’s area

82 M.Bonini, C.Testoni, E.ValerioAssessment of health costs due to ragweed allergy


83 J. Da Passano,M.Nuez,M.ThibaudonRagweed action in rhone department, France

84 P.Carnà, C. IvaldiThe effects of ragweed on the public health: analysis of the entrances to the emergency room in the city ofTurin (Italy)

85 N. Furiani, L.Ordeix, C. Saretto,G. Zanna, F. ScarampellaRagweed pollen hypersensitivity in atopic dogs: evaluation of 357 allergic tests from a referral practice inMilan (2003-2013)

Ambrosia day, 2014 -Ragweed allergy: 15 years of prevention -April 4th, 2014,Rho (Milan), Italy

Sessione ILa pianta e il pollineModeratori:GiuseppeFrenguelli, SandraCitterio

91 B.ChauvelIntroduction spread of common ragweed in Europe: ecological aspects

92 H.MéonPollen grains

Sessione IILamalattia nell’uomo enegli animaliModeratori:GiannaMoscato,AlbertoFloresD’Arcais

95 C.DéchampAllergy: the human health impact of ragweed -Ambrosia- pollen

96 N. FurianiAllergia al polline dell’Ambrosia in medicina veterinaria

97 B. Jahn-Schmid, K. Bastl, U. E. Berger,W.Hemmer, R.Asero, F. Ferreira, B. BohleWeed pollen-allergy in Austria: cross- and co-sensitization against ragweed- and mugwort pollen

Sessione IIIGli interventi di sanità pubblicaModeratori:AnnaTosi,PaoloBottero

101 M.BoniniAllergia all’Ambrosia: 15 anni di prevenzione nell’ASLMilano 1

102 N.Noisel, J. Lachaine,M-S. Cloutier, P. Krzywkowski, E.MassonPublic health interventions against ragweed in Quebec: examples from theMonteregie region

Sessione IVLa prevenzionedel futuroModeratori:GiuseppeFrenguelli,MairaBonini,ClaudioOrtolani

105 M.CristofaroCome controllare la pianta infestante Ambrosia artemisiifolia in Italia mediante un approccio biologico-integrato

106 H.Müller-Schärer, S. LommenSustainable management of Ambrosia artemisiifolia in Europe (COST FA1203-SMARTER): objectives,recent achievements and future opportunities

107 S. Lommen, E. Jongejans, U. Schaffner,M. Bonini,H.Müller-SchärerA population dynamics modelling approach for the management of ragweed – a case study of a potential biocontrolagent in Northern Italy


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SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Maira Bonini - Local Health Authority Milan 1, Milan, ItalyTamas Komives - Plant Protection Institute, ARC, HAS, Budapest,HungaryMichel Thibaudon - French Network of Aerobiology, Lyon, FrancePaolo Bottero - Magenta Hospital, Milan, ItalySandra Citterio - University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, ItalyBernard Clot - MeteoSwiss, Payerne, SwitzerlandChantal Déchamp - French Foundation For Ragweed Study (AFE-DA), Lyon, FranceHenriette Méon - French Foundation For Ragweed Study (AFE-DA), Lyon, France

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Maira Bonini - Local Health Authority Milan 1, Milan, ItalyTamas Komives - Plant Protection Institute, ARC, HAS, Budapest,HungaryMichel Thibaudon - French Network of Aerobiology, Lyon, FranceSandra Citterio - University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, ItalyRoberto Albertini - President of the Italian Association of Aerobio-logy (A.I.A.), ItalyGian Pietro Beltrami - President of Park of Ticino, ItalyEdgardo Valerio - Local Health Authority, Milan, Italy

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE - Local Health AuthorityMilan 1, Milan, Italy

Maira Bonini - Head Organizer, Department of MedicalPrevention, Public Health, Life EnvironmentLaura Mezzenzana - Head Secretary, Department of MedicalPreventionElena Castoldi -Department of Medical PreventionEmilia Ceruti - Administrative DepartmentGiuseppe Cislaghi - Department of Medical Prevention, PublicHealth, Life EnvironmentPaola Colombo - Department of Medical Prevention, Public Health,Life EnvironmentLucia Costabile - Training OfficeSusanna Dellavedova - Department of Medical Prevention, PublicHealth, Life EnvironmentStefania Garbagnati - Department of Medical PreventionMirco Lattarulo - Department of Medical PreventionCarmen Palluotto - Department of Medical PreventionCarla Spertini - Department of Medical Prevention, Public Health,Christian Stella - IT OfficeAnna Maria Stragapede - General DirectionClaudia Testoni - Department of Medical Prevention, Public Health,Life Environment

Under The Patronage of

Board


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This special issue contains papers pre-sented at the “Third International Rag-weed Conference” (3rd I.R.C.) held inRho (Milan), Italy on April 3rd-4th, 2014. Conference Chairs are Maira Bonini(Local Health Authority Milan 1; Ital-ian Association of Aerobiology - ItalianMonitoring Network in Aerobiology[A.I.A.-R.I.M.A.®]) and TamasKomives (Plant Protection Institue,Hungary), Head Organizer of the 3rd

I.R.C. and President of the Internation-al Ragweed Society (I.R.S.), respectively.The “Third International RagweedConference” is jointly organized to “Am-brosia day, 2014 - Ragweed allergy: 15years of prevention” Conference (LocalHealth Authority Milan 1, LombardyRegion, Italy).Both Conferences are also the scientificevents organized for the “NationalPollen Day” (G.N.P.®) of the Italian As-sociation of Aerobiology (A.I.A.).The meeting focuses on the theoreticaland practical aspects of ragweed (Am-

brosia artemisiifolia L.) spread in Europeand other parts of the world giving spe-cial emphasis to the harmful effects of itspollen. Basic research along with practical consid-erations in the fields of pollen allergen ge-netics, human (and animal) health, publichealth, aerobiology and meteorological as-pects, ecology and management are em-phasized. In addition laboratory, pilot, andmodeling studies leading to innovative ap-proaches are considered.The conference is attended by many sci-entists from at least 20 countries and atotal of 56 presentations are included inthe final program. The presentations arearranged into six separate sessions ac-cording to their topics.

It is our pleasure to thank the invitedspeakers and the leading scientists ac-tively involved in Ambrosia-related re-search who served as chairpersons of thescientific sessions. We are also grateful tothe authors of papers for submitting the

camera-ready copies, which made possi-ble the timely publication of this issue.

Finally, special thanks to:• the General Director of the LocalHealth Authority Milan 1, Dr. GiorgioScivoletto, for supporting the organiza-tion of the Conference;• the University of Milano Bicocca, theItalian Association of Aerobiology(A.I.A.) and the Park of Ticino for sup-porting the Conference;• the Director, Dr. Edgardo Valerio, andall collaborators of the Department ofMedical Prevention of the Local HealthAuthority Milan 1 for their daily activi-ty permitting the realization of the con-ference; • the President of the Italian Associationof Aerobiology (A.I.A.), Dr. RobertoAlbertini, and Prof. Sandra Citterio,University of Milano Bicocca, Depart-ment of Earth and Environmental Sci-ence, for their direct collaboration in therealization of the Conference.

Third International RagweedConference and ambrosia day 2014April 3rd-4th, 2014, Rho (Milan), Italy

M. BONINI1, M. THIBAUDON2, T. KOMIVES3

1Head Organizer of the Conference - Email: [email protected] Secretary of the International Ragweed Society3President of the International Ragweed Society


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As General Director of the Local HealthAuthority Milan 1, I’m honoured to holdthe “Third International Ragweed Con-ference” (3rd I.R.C.).The conference is jointly organized to“Ambrosia day, 2014 - Ragweed allergy: 15years of prevention”, Italian Convention.The jurisdiction of the Local HealthAuthority Milan 1 represents one of themost polluted area by ragweed in Europeand the people who live in this areaknow well the health problems related tothe widespread of this highly allergenicplant, therefore the location of the Con-ferences is well connected to the localcontext.Since the beginning of the public healthproblems related to the ragweed pres-ence, the Department of Medical Pre-vention of the Local Health AuthorityMilan 1 was very active in this issue, fol-lowing closely the regional indicationsand went further, collaborating with theLombardy Region in order to improve

and perfect the preventive measures. Aset of actions aimed at primary preven-tion of ragweed pollinosis were imple-mented: aerobiological monitoring; sur-veillance of grow over stands; epidemio-logical studies; assessment of directhealth costs due to ragweed; experimen-tal studies demonstrating the effective-ness of different methods to limit theragweed spreading, currently at the rootof the regional indications for the pre-vention of ragweed spreading; participa-tion in the European projects and, lastbut not least, education of the popula-tion and of the public authority, also byorganizing conventions like in the occa-sion of the 3rd-I.R.C.The international collaboration is essen-tial for development of research, educa-tion, information and laws, therefore the3rd-I.R.C. is a good opportunity to shareknowledge and experiences. Meanwhile,the “Ambrosia day” is a good point tooutline of the situation after 15 years

from the first regional preventive meas-ure against ragweed, taking into consid-eration the most recently clinical-diag-nostic developments, the available pre-ventive tools and the results and per-spectives of the European projects. Thepresentations are arranged into four sep-arate sessions and two roundtables ac-cording to their topics and a focus isdedicated to Ophraella communa, a beetleaccidentally widespread in northern Italyand in particular in the area of the LocalHealth Authority Milan 1, which seemsto have had a positive effect on the levelsof the airborne ragweed pollen andmight be a candidate for the biologicalcontrol of ragweed. The convention isopen to all health workers, local andpublic administrators and stakeholders.Hoping in a fruitful scientific work, aspecial thanks is dedicated to all the em-ployees of the Local Health Authoritywho collaborated in the realization ofthese two important scientific events.

Third International RagweedConference and ambrosia day 2014April 3rd-4th, 2014, Rho (Milan), Italy

G. SCIVOLETTO

General Director - Local Health Authority Milan 1


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L’Associazione Italiana di Aerobiologia(A.I.A.) è una società scientifica nata nel1985 dalla collaborazione tra biologi,medici, agronomi ed altre figure profes-sionali. La sua mission è promuovere e co-ordinare gli studi nel campo dell'aerobiolo-gia e delle patologie legate ad agentiaerodispersi e divulgarne conoscenza e ap-plicazione attraverso un approccio multi-disciplinare. L’aerobiologia studia le parti-celle di origine biologica presenti in atmos-fera, le fonti che le producono, le modalitàdel loro trasporto in aria e gli effetti chepossono avere sull'ambiente (indoor e out-door), sull’uomo, ma anche su animali, pi-ante, manufatti, sulla conservazione deibeni culturali, ecc.. A.I.A., come ogni annodal 2007, promuove e organizza una cam-pagna di informazione, denominata “Gior-nata Nazionale del Polline” (GNP®), persensibilizzare l’opinione pubblica su questitemi. Il padre del management P. Druckerdiceva che bisogna “Misurare perconoscere e conoscere per gestire” e in aer-obiologia il monitoraggio di pollini, sporefungine ed allergeni aerodispersi è un im-portante parametro di qualità dell’aria che,diffuso attraverso molteplici canali medi-atici, consente ai Medici di MedicinaGenerale e Specialisti di migliorare le

prestazioni diagnostiche e terapeutiche peri soggetti allergici; i pazienti possono ri-conoscere e gestire i loro sintomi anchelontano dalle sedi abituali di residenza,mentre Enti e Istituzioni preposti allatutela della salute, dell’ambiente e dellaqualità dell’aria possono migliorare le at-tività di prevenzione sanitaria, ambientale edi gestione del territorio. La GNP® ha loscopo di diffondere notizie sulle iniziativein campo aerobiologico, fornendo ai diver-si soggetti, impegnati nello studio di questifenomeni, l’occasione per un momento diincontro e collaborazione per sensibilizzarela platea più vasta possibile. La GNP®2014, giunta quest’anno alla sua ottava edi-zione, è celebrata da A.I.A. con il pa-trocinio della 3a Conferenza Internazionalesull’Ambrosia (3rd International RagweedConference) e del Convegno italiano “Am-brosia Day 2014 – Allergia all’Ambrosia:15 anni di prevenzione", importanti con-vegni che affrontano i diversi aspetti sani-tari e ambientali legati alla diffusione, inEuropa e nel mondo, di questa pianta er-bacea infestante che produce pollini ingrande quantità e altamente allergenici. LaConferenza Internazionale è organizzatada International Ragweed Society (IRS) eASL Milano1; il Convengo italiano è or-

ganizzato da ASL Milano1. Attraverso lapartecipazione attiva ad eventi di questogenere, così importanti anche in ambitointernazionale, A.I.A. testimonia il suoruolo di Società scientifica la cui azione èindirizzata verso tutti gli attori che svolgo-no quotidianamente un compito impor-tante in ambito aerobiologico. In ultimaanalisi, l’obiettivo di A.I.A. evidenziato inun contesto come quello della GNP®, amaggior ragione legato ad un importanteevento internazionale, è anche quello disensibilizzare l’opinione pubblica e le Isti-tuzioni su questa attività e perseguire il ri-conoscimento normativo a livello regionalee nazionale del monitoraggio aerobiologi-co, così come è andato strutturandosi nelcorso del tempo, per non disperdereconoscenze, competenze e informazioni.Le sinergie tra le discipline biologiche emediche, Istituzioni, Associazioni scienti-fiche, di pazienti e Enti sono fondamentaliper una lotta a trecentosessanta gradi neiconfronti delle patologie allergiche respira-torie, per l’ottimizza-zione delle risorseutilizzate nelle attività di monitoraggio edestinate al servizio offerto al paziente chene migliorino la qualità di vita e riducano icosti sanitari diretti ed indiretti per la col-lettività.

VIII giornata nazionale del PollineAssociazione Italiana di Aerobiologia

R. ALBERTINI

Presidente Associazione Italiana di Aerobiologia - Email: [email protected]


Ecological and Managementaspects of ragweed

Chair: Rodolfo Gentili, Tamas Komives

Session I


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Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. (common rag-weed) is spreading over the Europeanterritory, which is raising public-health-related issues. Common ragweed is anannual spring weed that colonizes per-turbed areas such as roadsides (1). Roadnetwork, railways and waterways areknown to be dispersal corridors for inva-sive species including common ragweedwhich seems, by its biological character-istics, particularly well adapted to thesehabitats.In France, vegetation surveys showedthat common ragweedhas a wide ecolog-ical tolerance and can found on habitatsdiffering in terms of vegetation coverand typeof soil (2) (Table 1).The long vegetative stage of commonragweed with a late seed productionshould support the effective manage-ment of this species. Furthermore, dif-ferent management tools (chemical, soiltillage, biological, hand weeding) can beused. One of the problems is to find, ac-cording to the stage of development ofthe plants, the well-adapted method tothe habitat concerned by the presence ofthe plants (road-sides, river banks, fields,urban areas, etc) in order the increase thesuccess of the management (3). For ex-ample, a comparison between differentherbicides indicated that common rag-weed is an easy-to-wet species and thatfoliar active ingredients are quickly andcompletely absorbed by its leaves. On a non-crop area, a 100% efficacy canbe theoretically reached at vegetative andearly flowering stages (3). However, afterearly treatments, new seedlings emer-gence led to the presence of vigorous

plants that bore numerous flowers andproduced high levels of pollen. Aftertreatment at the flowering stage, flowerproduction was not significantly affect-ed, but achene weight was decreased by60 to 70% and seed viability was verylow (Table 2). Despite the high efficacyof herbicide, it is difficult to attain thetwo objectives of reducing seed produc-tion and pollen production by means ofonly one treatment (3).In the case of management without her-bicide, the competition is rarely enoughstrong to completely stop the flowering

and the seed production and sponta-neous vegetation offers a too weak com-petition to control common ragweed (4)(Table 3).More generally, whatever the methodchosen, the high adaptability of the plantand the difficulty of managing simulta-neously pollens (pollinosis) and seeds(invasion) are largely responsible for thespread of the plant. Biological controlsare not sufficient to control the dynamicof common ragweed. Predation rate byinvertebrates was estimated on seedcards in cultivated fields: a mean preda-

Ecological and management aspects ofcommon ragweedB. CHAUVEL1,2, Q. MARTINEZ2

1Inra, UMR1347 Agroécologie,BP 85610 Dijon, France - Email: [email protected], Observatoire des ambroisies, BP 85610 Dijon, France

Soil factor Minimum Median Maximum

Clay % 1.8 14.7 42.8Silt % 0.8 23.8 64.0Sand 11.5 62.4 97.4C/N 0.7 10.7 38.7pH (KCl) 4.1 7.7 8.6Organic matter (g/kg) 0.6 26.8 209.0CaCO3 (g/kg) 0.2 94.1 761.0

Tab. 1 - Chemical properties of soil in sites occupied by common ragweed.

Control N/2 Glu N Glu N/2 Gly N Gly

Biomass 288 259 213 229 236(mg per plant) (49.4) (16.5) (21.6) (18.0) (18.7)

Seeds 27.4 16.9 15.1 19.3 24.9per plant (3.78) (0.83) (1.41) (2.21) (2.18)

Seed weight 6.4 1.2 2.2 3.3 3.3per plant (g) (0.69) (0.10) (0.32) (0.51) (0.11)

100-seedweight 445 134 135 163 180(mg) (5.0) (3.5) (3.3) (8.8) (8.7)

Tab. 2 - Influence of glufosinate (Glu) and glyphosate (Gly) on biomass, and seed productionand weight of common ragweed plants treated at the flowering stage. N: 150 and 1080 gha-1 glufosinate and glyphosate, respectively. (in parentheses SEMs).


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tion of 24,61 % of Ambrosia artemisiifoliaseeds was observed and was not differentfrom that observed for other weed (mean= 28,44%) (6).Resistance to herbicides or changes indefense against predators (7) have beenalready demonstrated. It appears thatonly a preventive management is effec-tive to control its spread before the es-

tablishment of a seedbank. The poolingof successful of management actions andthe exclusion of practices that favour thespread of the species are necessary toprevent the situation from getting worse.The curative management requires along-term work in a context of fundingsdecrease where ragweed control is not al-ways the priority.

References

1. Chauvel B, Dessaint F, et al. Journal of Bio-geography, 2006, 33, 665-673.

2. Fumanal B., Girod C., et al. Weed Re-search,2008. 48, 349-359.

3. Bullock JM., Chapman D. et al. Assessingand controlling the spread and the effects ofcommon ragweed inEurope, 2010, P.456.

4. Gauvrit C, Chauvel B. Weed Research,2010, 50, 503-510.

5. Martinez Q. ChauvelB. AFPP – 22e Con-férence du Columa. 68-76.

6. Trichard A, Auguste C,et al. Second Inter-national Ragweed Conference (Irc) March28-29, 2012, Lyon, France, 2012 - Poster

7. Fukano Y, Yahara T. PLoS ONE, 2012,7(11), e49114.

Habitats Surviving Meanbiomass Flowering ragweeds plants (%) (per plant) (%)

Alfafa 43,75% a 4,05 ns 6.3 aLawn 93,75% b 2,41 ns 13.2 bSpontaneous vegetation 100% b 15,37 ns 25% cSown wildflowers 100% b 20,36 ns 24.2% c

Tab. 3 - Effects of different habitats on common ragweed development


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The use of remote sensing data to detectpatches of common ragweed (Ambrosiaartemisiifolia) is more complex than thetraditional problem of the detection of thecrops types and their yields. Since commonragweed grows irregularly within a field, itsspectral characteristics are strongly de-pendent on the type of the main crop cul-ture, and on the degree of field weediness.The purpose of this research is to assess theambrosia weediness in the South of Russia.The results of the decoding of the mediumresolution images from Landsat satellites,which allowed identifying pockets of com-mon ragweed in agrophytocenoses of theSouth of Russia using the NormalizedDifference Vegetation Index – (NDVI) arepresented. Due to the fact that uniquelyidentifying of the ragweed on pictures isnot possible at the current stage of ourstudy, we use the term "risk of weediness".The approach is based on the use of re-mote sensing and geographic informationsystems, combined with field studies for

the construction of risk maps for the rag-weed distribution. The characteristic fea-ture of the vegetation and its condition isthe spectral reflectivity. Agrophytocenosesinfested with common ragweed in theRostov region have been selected for theexperiment. Calculating of vegetation in-dices has been performed in order to workwith the spectral characteristics of com-mon ragweed. The 4-channel spectrome-ter SkyeInstruments SpectroSense 2 +measuring radiation in the 3 channels inthe visible and near infrared bands hasbeen used to determine the spectral bright-ness of common ragweed in the field study.Also imagery from Landsat 4-5 ThematicMapper (TM) has been created. The veg-etation index on satellite images was calcu-lated with the help of ArcGisDesktopsoftware. Finally the NDVI index was cal-culated as the result of the image analysisand the values of the vegetation index forcommon ragweed were determined bycomparisons with the field sampling data.

The most important information forbuilding the risk maps is information onvegetation peaks of both the ragweed andrelated plant cultures. We can speak with ahigh degree of confidence only about theweediness of grain fields in late August –early September, as the vegetation peaks ofcommon ragweed and grain crops differ.The results obtained at this stage of our in-vestigation indicate the absence of exten-sional areas heavily infested by the ragweedin the study area in the South of Russia atnowadays. Strong weediness is systemati-cally observed only at the edges of fieldsand along the roadsides. This result con-firms the conclusions of the field studiesabout the long-term efficiency of the in-troduction from the North America of theragweed leaf beetle (Zygogramma suturalis)in the period 1978–1990. A retrospectiveanalysis of archival satellite images takenduring the second half of the 1980s, showsa reduction of the area covered by weeds inthis period.

Weediness assessment of anthropogenicphytocenoses on the basis of satelliteremote sensinge data (a case example ofcommon ragweed)N.A. KACHALINA1,2, O.E. ARKHIPOVA1,2,3, YU.V. TYUTYUNOV1,2,3

1 Institute of Arid Zones, Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov-on-Don, Russia - Email: [email protected] Faculty of High Technologies, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 3Vorovich Research Institute of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia


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The process-based model, Sirius 2010(1), was used to predict the future poten-tial for range expansion of A. artemisiifo-lia under climate change scenarios. Pa-rameters driving the growth and devel-opment of A. artemisiifolia, includingseed dormancy and germination, bio-mass partitioning and phenology werecalibrated using data from literature andgrowth experiments. The model predictsplant fecundity and pollen production in

response to environmental variations,e.g. daily temperature, rainfall and CO2

concentration. Future predictions weremade across Europe based on projec-tions from the HadCM3 global climatemodel for the near future (2010-2030)and long-term future (2050-2070) (2)with high emission scenario (A1B). Thegrowth rate of the seed bank was calcu-lated from the predicted plant fecundityand was presented as a measure of the

potential for A. artemisiifolia populationto establish (3). The future southern lim-it of the range of A. artemisiifolia waspredicted to change very little as futurerainfall patterns meant most of Spain,southern Italy and Greece remained toodry to maintain viable populations.However, the potential available habitatwas predicted to extend further northand east under climate change as in-creasing summer temperatures resultedin higher probability of the plant com-pleting its life cycle and producing ma-ture seeds. Where A. artemisiifolia is cur-rently well established, the model pre-dicted smaller relative increase in pollenproduction. However, at the Northernrange, larger increase in pollen produc-tions were predicted which could poten-tially create health problems (Fig. 1).

References

1. Stratonovitch P, Storkey J, Semenov MA.Global Change Biology, 2012, 18, 2071-2080.

2. Semenov MA, Stratonovitch P. Climate Re-search, 2010, 41, 1-14.

3. Storkey J, Stratonovitch P, et al. PLOSONE, in press.

A process-based approach to predictingthe effect of climate change onambrosia artemisiifolia in europeP. STRATONOVITCH1, J. STORKEY2, M. A. SEMENOV1

1Rothamsted Research, Computational and Systems Biology Department, Harpenden, UK - Email: [email protected] Research, Agroecology Department, Harpenden, UK

Fig. 1 - Logarithm of relative increase in pollen production, Pfuture/Pbs for theHadCM3(A1B) long term future scenario (2050-2070), where Pbs and Pfuture are pollenproduction for the baseline and future climate scenario.


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Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifo-lia L.), an annual plant of the Asteraceaefamily native for North America, becamean alien weed all around the world, in-cluding Asia, Australia and Europe. InItaly ragweed is recorded in the Northernand Central Regions, but it is very abun-dant mainly in the Po Valley. In theframework of the COST ActionSMARTER, a sustainable program ofmanagement of this target weed is inprogress to control the weed by usingleast toxic approaches. Among them,special emphasis will be attributed toclassic biological control of weeds, evalu-ating the restricted host range of selectedcandidate agents through a series of filedobservations and bioassays carried out inboth no-choice and choice conditions.Candidate agents – generally arthropods

like insects and mites, have the same ge-ographical origin of the target weed, withwhom they are closely connected by aprocess of co-evolution. In this way theselected candidate agent(s) will feed,oviposit and develop only on one plantspecies, showing a clear monophagy orrestricted oligophagy. Looking more indetails at the potential biocontrol candi-dates under evaluation for ragweed, themost promising looks like Ophraella com-muna (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), agregarious leaf beetle of North Americanorigin, because its gregarious behavior,the strong fitness and the prolonged im-pact on its host plant. Moreover, duringthe summer 2013 large populations ofOphraella communa were recorded inseveral sites near Milan and in the PoValley, confirming an accidental intro-

duction in that area (1). In the framework of a classic biological control pro-gram and in cooperation with other Ital-ian and European teams, ENEA C.R.Casaccia will be involved in the evalua-tion of the host range of this leaf-beetleof North-American origin: field and lab-oratory trials will be carried out to evalu-ate the impact of the selected candidateagent alone and/or in combination withother methods of control.

References

1. Müller-Schärer H, Lommen STE, Roselli-ni M, Bonini M, Boriani M, Bosio G,Schaffner U. The ragweed leaf beetle hassuccessfully landed in Europe: fortunate co-incidence or threat? Weed Research, 2014,in press.

Ambrosia artemisiifolia in italy:integration of classic biologicalcontrol approach into amultidisciplinary programM. CRISTOFARO

ENEA –C. R. Casaccia – UTAGRI-ECO, Rome, Italy - Email: [email protected]


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Ambrosia artemisiifolia L (common rag-weed) has become a major problemacross European countries due to itshighly allergenic pollen and to its inva-siveness, favoured by its ecological ampli-tude and phenotypic plasticity,. In thiswork we assumed that a strong competi-tion for resources may inhibit ragweedgrowth, generating a negative feedbackto its establishment and spreading. Thespecific goal was to determine by a fieldexperiment the effect of mixtures of na-tive species on ragweed growth and fit-ness, assessing the principal mechanismsof interaction. To this aim, we consideredthe following three different treatmentswithin a quarry area (Botticino Basin,Brescia, Lombardy) extremely invaded by

A. artemisiifolia: a) spontaneous succes-sion (SS), starting from a bare ground; b)seeding of hayseed (H); c) seeding of ahigh density commercial seed mixture(CS). In these sites within random plots,we recorded vegetation percent cover, to-tal number of common ragweed individ-uals and eight plant traits of the speciessuch as plant height, lateral spread, inflo-rescence size and numbers, maximumleaf size and seed weight. Preliminary re-sults highlighted strong differences intraits among the treatments. In generalthe CS, showed high vegetation cover(95%) and significant lower number ofcommon ragweed individuals (2±1 indi-viduals) with respect H (cover 75%; 15±5individuals) and SS (cover 55%; 50±9 in-

dividuals). Moreover the CS treatmentaccounted the strongest reduction ofcommon ragweed biomass in terms ofplant height, lateral spread and leaf sizes;SS plots showed the highest values for allmeasured traits. However, for some pa-rameters (for instance, lateral spread andinflorescence size), no significant differ-ence was recorded between CS and Hstands. These results suggested that en-hancing interspecific competition estab-lishing native plant communities (bothfrom hayseed or seed mixture) could be auseful technique for restoring diversityon sites invaded by common ragweed.Density of seeding played a key role inreducing biomass and fitness of this ex-tremely invasive species.

Intensive grassland seeding to controlambrosia artemisiifolia l. spreadR. GENTILI1, F. GILARDELLI1, A. GHIANI1, S. CIAPPETTA1, M. BONINI2, S. CITTERIO1

1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences,University of Milano - Bicocca, Milan Italy - Email: [email protected] Health Authority Milan 1, Italy.


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The main cause of allergy and pollenasthma in North America and CentralEurope is pollen from ragweed (Am-brosia) a widespread genus in the Aster-aceae. In Europe short or common rag-weed (A. artemisiifolia) is prevalent.Common ragweed is the number oneweed in Hungary: it covers ca 5% of thearable land. The competitive weed caus-es huge losses in row crops. In addition,because of the high allergenicity of itspollen, common ragweed is a huge bur-den on the health care system of thecountry. In Hungary, common ragweedinfestation is heaviest in sunflower (He-lianthus annuus), the third most impor-tant crop of the country (also an Aster-aceae plant, thus, a botanical relative ofcommon ragweed). In August-Septem-ber common ragweed produces the over-whelming majority of allergenic pollenin the air ever in urban areas. Increasing

importance of bioenergy production to-gether with recent advances in improv-ing the dietary value of sunflower oil willcertainly increase the production area ofsunflower in the future. Thus, there is anurgent need for new tools to improve thecontrol of common ragweed in this crop.In the presentation we show the resultsof a seven-year (2007-2013) field studyon the control of common ragweed bytwo acetolactate synthase inhibitingpostemergence herbicides (imazamoxand tribenuron methyl) in sunflower hy-brids (NK Meldimi, NK Neoma andPR63E82) that carry the resistance geneagainst such herbicides. Common rag-weed control by these herbicides was sta-ble and excellent: they suppressed thegrowth of the weed plant until thecanopy closure of the crop (8-leaf stage).Common ragweed plants germinatingafter this date were unable to compete

with the crop: although they survived,they remained small (ca 70% reductionin height), produced ca 90% less maleinflorescences (source of the allergenicpollen), and caused no significant reduc-tion in the crop yield. In areas wheresunflower germination was poor, howev-er, a second, mechanical common rag-weed control measure was necessary tokeep the weed density below damaginglevels. In areas where sunflower germi-nation was poor, however, a second, me-chanical common ragweed control meas-ure was necessary to keep the weed den-sity below damaging levels.

Acknowledgement

We thank the European Commission, DG En-vironment for financial support (HALT AM-BROSIA, 07.0322/2010/ 58340/SUB/B2

Controlling common ragweed (ambrosiaartemisiifolia) in sunflower with highefficacyP. REISINGER1, G. KUKORELLI1, T. KOMIVES2

1 Faculty of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of West-Hungary, Var 2, 9200 Mosonmagyarovar, Hungary - Email: [email protected] Protection Institute, ARC, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Herman Otto ut 12, 1022 Budapest, Hungary


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The EU-COST Action FA1203 on "Sus-tainable control of Ambrosia artemisiifoliaL. (Asteraceae) in Europe (SMARTER)"was launched in February 2013 and willlast for four years. Thirty-three countrieshave already signed the Memorandum ofUnderstanding and over 180 researcherswith specialists in weed research, invasivealien species management, ecology, aerobi-ology, allergology and economics are regis-tered participants of SMARTER. COSTActions interlink nationally funded re-search projects and enable and financeconferences, working groups, trainingschools and research exchanges.SMARTER aims to initiate and developlong-term and sustainable control meth-ods, to integrate these into existing me-chanical and chemical control measures,and to quantify the success of these meas-ures both for agriculture and health. Thefocus is on biological control methods with

insects and fungi (especially using alienspecies from the area of origin of Am-brosia) and vegetation management toachieve a competitive plant cover. The en-visaged outcomes of SMARTER will al-low the various stakeholders to select opti-mal habitat- and region-specific combina-tions of control methods. After an intro-duction and overview of the structure andthe state of the Action, we briefly describetwo planned activities typical for our Ac-tion, a study on the population dynamicsof Ambrosia in different climates andhabitats in Europe as a basis for estimatingthe efficiency of control measures, and aninterdisciplinary study to clarify the impactthe of North American native Ambrosialeaf beetle Ophraella communa (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae) recently found in south-ern Switzerland and northern Italy 1, 2.Finally, we will briefly present the newlylaunched iPhone App “The SMARTER

Ambrosia Reporter”, which mainly servesto report the occurrence of Ragweed whenyou see it around. It also features a versionfor professionals, including more detailedinformation about the location and thevegetation.

References

1. Boriani M, Calvi M, Taddei A, Tantardini A,Cavagna B, Spadoni Andreani F, MontagnaM, Lommen S, M�ller-Schärer H. 2013.Ophraella communa segnalata in Italia suAmbrosia, L'Informatore agrario 34, 2. (inItalian)

2. Müller-Schärer H, Lommen STE, RoselliniM, Bonini M, Boriani M, Bosio G, Schaffn-er U. 2014. The ragweed leaf beetle has suc-cessfully landed in Europe: fortunate coinci-dence or threat? Weed Research, in press.

Sustainable management of ambrosiaartemisiifolia in europe (cost fa1203-smarter): opportunities and challengesH. MÜLLER-SCHÄRER, S. LOMMEN

Departement of Biology, Unit Ecology & Evolution, University of Fribourg - Email: [email protected]


Aerobiology and meteorologicalaspects of ragweed pollen

movement

Chair: Giuseppe Frenguelli, Roberto Albertini

Session II

04-Session 2:07-boi 24-03-2014 10:35 Pagina 23

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Within the European Aeroallergen Net-work (EAN) are gathered all pollen datacoming from almost 250 measurementstations located in 37 countries from Ice-land to Turkey for instance. All these sta-tions are provided with the same kind ofHirst-type pollen trap and analyses arecarried out following the procedures en-acted by the International Association forAerobiology (IAA) and the EuropeanAerobiology Society (EAS). In NorthAmerica, there are also some measure-ment stations that follow the same proto-col. The main characteristics of Hirsttype pollen traps (Lanzoni or Burkard)are to work continuously, to inhale a con-stant air volume and to impact continu-ously particles present in the air on atransparent support. Characteristics ofthese pollen traps are subject of a norma-tive description within the CEN 264,thanks to the new working group set upfor the EAS. Analyses of the samples aremade by optical microscopy following theapproved procedures of the IAA whichare included within the future technicalsheet of CEN. If all pollens are identifiedand counted, ragweed pollens are subjectto a particular attention. They are aver-age-sized (20 µm), tricolporate andspherical-shaped with wide spines regu-larly distributed. Qualitative and quanti-tative data allow to obtain daily or bi-hourly concentrations by m3 of air. Dailyconcentrations allow the evaluation of al-lergy sufferers exposure to this pollen,while the bi-hourly concentrations, whenthey exist, allow to complete the distribu-tion maps of the plant at a local scale. Tocheck the efficiency of fighting methods

against ragweed, the set up in proximityposition of passive pollen traps SLT (Sig-ma2 Like Trap) allows to evaluate quick-ly differences of exposure to ragweed pol-lens in infested or not infested areas.

The measurement of health impact relat-ed to the exposure to pollen could be donein different ways, according the protocolsused in each country. Some countries likeFrance use “a clinical index” (1) calculated

Ragweed pollination in EuropeM. THIBAUDON

Réseau National de Surveillance Aérobiologique, Brussieu, France - Email: [email protected]

Fig. 1 - Clinical index for France in 2011-2012-2013

Fig. 2 - Ragweed pollens and score-symptom in France (2010-2012)


26 G.E.A.


during all the season thanks to a networkof doctors (Fig. 1). At European level, EAN set up, thanks tothe work of our Austrian colleagues (S.Jager and U. Berger), a system to collectdirectly the symptoms by the patientsthemselves. This system, named PHD (2)(for Pollen HayFever Diary), allow to cal-culate a “score-symptom” (Fig. 2). These parameters (clinical index and scoresymptom) allow to establish individuallevels of sensitivity of patients and aver-ages of health impact of the exposure toragweed pollens on an area.Measures analysis of ragweed pollens re-veals that the plant is present along the

45th parallel either in North America orEurope. The evolution of the average an-nual amounts increased from 2010 to2012 but decrease in 2013. Daily data areused to make dispersion models of pollensshowing a shift from West to East duringall the season. 2013 was a specific year which wasfavourable towards allergy sufferers: thegermination began two or three weeks lat-er than usual and the development of theplant kept this lateness. So the pollinationin Europe was from 3 to 10 days late and,at the end of the season, some fields full ofragweed, almost flowering, dried withoutproduction of any pollen grains.

Ragweed pollen is a real public healthproblem increasing every year and invad-ing more and more geographical areas.

References

1. Thibaudon M, Oliver G, Sindt C. L’indexclinique, outil d’évaluation de l’impact sani-taire du pollen

2. Berger U, Karatzas K, Jaeger S, Voukantsis D,Sofiev M, Brandt O, Zuberbier T, BergmannKC. Personalized pollen-related symptom-forecast information services for allergicrhinitis patients in Europe, Allergy 07/2013;DOI:10.1111/all.12181


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Because of the health effects of the inva-sive weed Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.(Common Ragweed), it is necessary todevelop modelling tools to be able toforecast ambrosia air pollen concentra-tions and to inform allergic people whenpollen threshold values are exceeded.This study is realised within the frame-work of the ATOPICA project(https://www.atopica.eu/) which is de-signed to provide first steps in tools andestimations of the fate of allergies in Eu-rope due to changes in climate, land useand air quality. To calculate and predictairborne concentrations of ambrosiapollen, a chain of models has been built.The PMP phenological modelling plat-form is used to construct a model fittedwith observed start and end dates ofpollen season. The phenological modeltakes into account the daily air tempera-ture, the daily soil moisture and pho-toperiod. The inter-annual pollen pro-duction is modelled using the vegetation

model ORCHIDEE. The release mod-ule based on Efsthatiou formulation(2011) (1) is implemented in the chemi-cal transport model CHIMERE. Air-borne pollens follow processes similar toair quality pollutants in CHIMEREwith some adaptations. The detailedmethodology, formulations and inputdata will be presented. A set of simula-tions has been performed to simulateairborne concentrations of pollens overlong time periods on a large Europeandomain. Hindcast simulations (2000 –2012) driven by ERA-Interim re-analy-ses are designed to best simulate past pe-riods airborne pollens. The modelledpollen concentrations are calibrated withobservations and validated against addi-tional observations. Then, 20-year longhistorical simulations (1986 – 2005) arecarried out using calibrated ambrosiadensity distribution and climate model-driven weather in order to serve as a con-trol simulation for future scenarios. By

comparison with multi-annual observeddaily pollen counts we have shown thatthe model captures well the spatial dis-tribution with correlation equal to 0.77,but the daily variability of pollen countsremains to be improved with correlationsvarying between 0.1 and 0.75. The mod-el chain captures reasonably well the in-ter-annual variability of pollen yearlymean concentrations, correlations arepositive for about 80% of sites. The mainuncertainty in ambrosia pollen model-ling is linked to the uncertainty in theplant density distribution. Preliminaryresults of the impact of environmentalchanges on pollen concentrations in thefuture will also be shown.

References

1. Efstathiou C., Isukapalli S., GeorgopoulosP., Atmos. Environ., 2011, 45(13), 2260-76.

Modelling of ambrosia airborne pollenconcentrations over EuropeL. HAMAOUI-LAGUEL1, R. VAUTARD1, N. VIOVY1, D. KHVOROSTYANOV2, A.COLETTE3

1 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, Gif surYvette, France - Email: [email protected] Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Palaiseau, France.3 Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques, Verneuil en Halatte, France.


In Europe, more than 15% of the popu-lation suffer from pollinosis. Pollen fore-casts are a helpful tool both for physi-cians and allergy sufferers. Traditionally,pollen forecasts are mostly linked topollen observation sites. However, thereis a strong need for regionally and tem-porally detailed pollen forecasts. Numer-ical pollen dispersion models such asCOSMO-ART (COnsortium forSMall-scale Modeling - Aerosols andReactive Trace gases) can provide the re-quired temporal and spatial resolutions.The COSMO model is used in opera-tional weather forecasts in a number ofEuropean weather services such as thoseof Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Thepollen module of ART describes thepollen emission, dispersion and sedimen-tation processes. During the pollen sea-son, MeteoSwiss operationally calculates

hourly birch, grass and ragweed pollenconcentrations with daily updates of the72h-forecasts. The model domain coversCentral and Southern Europe with a spa-tial resolution of 7 km. The distributionmap of ragweed is based on plant inven-tories and pollen data. To describe thecourse of the pollen season, the climato-logical start and end dates in combina-tion with Gaussian functions were used.The parameterization of the pollen emis-sion is superposed on these factors anddepends strongly on the local meteoro-logical conditions. Both dry depositionprocesses and washout by precipitation istaken into consideration. The perform-ance of COSMO-ART during the 2013ragweed pollen season is presented. Timeseries comparison of measured and mod-eled concentrations shows mostly goodagreement for French, Swiss and Austri-

an stations. The analyses include bothdaily as well as bihourly resolutions.Good agreement at stations remote tothe main pollen sources highlights theability of COSMO-ART to model thetransport processes of pollen. However,the analysis of discrepancies indicate thatthe ragweed distribution is a key input toCOSMO-ART. In addition, the para-meterization of the emission processes isof paramount importance for the per-formance of the ragweed forecasts. Tosum up, COSMO-ART is capable toprovide spatially and temporally highlyresolved pollen concentrations of goodquality. Traditional pollen forecasts arelargely station-oriented. The pollen con-centration maps and time series of COS-MO-ART fill the gap between the sta-tions and thus represent pollen informa-tion hitherto not available.

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Ragweed pollen forecasts based on thenumerical dispersion model cosmo-art:concept, processes and performanceA. PAULING1, K. ZINK1, H. VOGEL2, B. VOGEL2

1 Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Zurich, Switzerland - Email: [email protected] Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany


During the summer of 2013, the exoticoligophagous leaf beetle Ophraella commu-na LeSage, 1986 (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae) was observed feeding onAmbrosia artemisiifolia L (common rag-weed) plants in the northwest of theProvince of Milan (NW Milan) inNorthern Italy. At the same time, it wasnoticed that routine pollen-monitoringstations situated in three towns in thesame area recorded less Ambrosia pollenthan in the previous decade. A study hasbeen conducted to determine whether thisobserved decrease in airborne Ambrosiapollen concentrations can be explained byenvironmental factors such as meteorolo-gy, or whether there is evidence to supportthe hypothesis that the decrease was relat-ed to the presence of large numbers of O.communa in the area. Analyses haveshown that the observed decrease in the

amount of Ambrosia pollen recorded an-nually during August and September(Annual Ragweed Pollen – ARP) in NWMilan was significant (slope=-211.023,p=0.037). This study has also shown thatthe amount of airborne Ambrosia pollen isinfluenced by conditions before and dur-ing the main flowering period of Am-brosia. Rainfall during August seems to beparticularly important (r=0.538, p=0.047),and appears to be related to the positiveeffect it has on water availability for pollenproduction, rather than the negative influ-ence it has on the release and dispersal ofpollen. The amount of precipitationrecorded in 2013 was one of the lowest inthe 2000-2013 dataset, and as a result theARP in 2013 would be expected to be ofa low magnitude. However, the regressionmodels were, in generally, not able to ex-plain the extreme decrease in airborne

Ambrosia pollen concentrations seen in2013. The results of this study do not sup-port the hypothesis that the observed de-crease in airborne Ambrosia pollen wassolely related to the presence of largenumbers of O. communa in the area. How-ever, the results of regression analysis sug-gest that the drastic decrease in ARP in2013 cannot be explained by meteorologyalone. The degree by which the infesta-tion of the beetle influenced airborne Am-brosia pollen concentrations therefore re-mains unknown. More study of the long-term effects of O.communa on concentra-tions of airborne Ambrosia pollen is re-quired. In addition, other factors that areexpected to influence ragweed pollencounts should also be considered, such aschanges in land use and managementpractices, implemented by local regulationsince 1999.

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Seasonal variations in the amount ofairborne ragweed pollen in Milan inrelation to environmental factorsM. BONINI1, B. ŠIKOPARIJA2, M. PRENTOVIC2, G. CISLAGHI1, P. COLOMBO1, L. GREWLING3, H. MÜLLER-SCHÄRER4, M. SMITH5

1Department of Medical Prevention, Public Health, Local Health Authority of Milan 1, Parabiago (Mi), Italy - Email: [email protected] for Palynology, Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia;3Laboratory of Aeropalynology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland; 4Department Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland;5Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases, Medical University of Vienna, Austria


Native from North America, Ambrosiaartemisiifolia was accidentally introducedin France in 1863, in a field of Allier,with seeds of red clover. Other introduc-tions followed throughout the twentiethcentury in many places, especially duringthe First World War. Then ragweedspread to the roadsides and banks ofrivers (Rhône, Loire ...). It is onlyaround 1970 that its role was highlight-ed in pollinosis cases in Lyon (1). Cur-rently, it is estimated that 6 to 12% ofthe French population is allergic to rag-weed pollen, especially in Rhône-Alpesregion where the plant is particularlywell established in every departmentsince many years in flatlands and hills.Ragweed is also present in other Frenchregions, going from only a few plants tosometimes larger amounts but do notseem to cover wide spaces like in Rhône-Alpes. With records covering more than25 years pollen data, RNSA follows theevolution of ragweed pollination: annualpollen index, start and length of the sea-

son, new areas with ragweed pollen,etc… Pollen exposure measurements arebased on data from Hirst-type sporetraps and correspond to daily pollen con-centration. The data are recorded on a 2-hourly time step which allows to deter-mine the circadian rhythm of the plantand to evaluate if the pollens are of localorigin or transported over longer dis-tance by the wind. In Lyon, one of thehot spot for the ragweed, the start dateof the pollination tends to be earlier: thetendency shows that the first pollens ofragweed arrive now one week earlierthan 25 years ago. Over the same period,the annual pollen index increased inmost of the French stations in areas in-fested by ragweed. 2013 was however anexception to this rule due to a really lateseason. In some stations, circadianrhythm allows to see the evolution of thepresence of the plant (2) in a same re-gion: in Auvergne, the north of the re-gion is already infested (pollens in themorning) while the south of the region is

not yet infested (a few pollens in the af-ternoon). And now, ragweed pollens arealso recorded on some places of the westof the country while it was not the casebefore. Twenty-five years of pollen datahistory offers an interesting overview ofthe evolution of ragweed pollination inFrance: season begins earlier, theamounts of pollen are increasing in mostof the stations and it seems that moreand more areas are infested and, conse-quently, more and more people becomesensitive and symptomatic.

References

1. Dessaint F., Chauvel B., Bretagnolle F.2005. L’ambroisie Chronique de l’extensiond’un « polluant biologique » en France.Médecine/Sciences, 21 : 207-209.

2. Thibaudon M, Oliver G, Sindt C. Le cap-teur de pollen : un outil pour déterminerl’origine des grains de pollen d’ambroisie,Revue Française d’Allergologie, 49 (2009)515-523

30 G.E.A.


Evolution of ragweed pollination inFranceG. OLIVER, M. THIBAUDON

Réseau National de Surveillance Aérobiologique (RNSA), Brussieu, France - Email: [email protected]


The 15 million metropolis of Istanbulhas comparably long been spared fromragweed. In 2007, Ambrosia pollens wereobserved for the first time in Buyukcek-mece, in the western suburbs of the city.Due to the lack of reported local plantpopulations and low concentrations, longrange transport was argued combinedwith a local source (1). In this paper, da-ta sampled from the same trap location(TRISFU in EAN) during 2013 are pre-sented. This paper also describes thechanges in airborne concentrations ofthis highly invasive plant over the courseof the last six years. Methodology: Pollencollected in 2007 (01.08 - 30.09) and2013 (10.07 and 30.09) with a Hirst-Type trap and counted on three horizon-tal sweeps was analyzed. A Missing DataAnalysis was performed with SPSS 15.0for the ragweed season 2007. Their sta-tistical difference was tested with a Twosample t-Test. Results and Discussion: Forthe data collected in 2007, a missing da-

ta treatment was necessary because32.8% of the collected days were missing.Regression Estimated Statistics (REG)yielded a satisfactory outcome. The Sea-sonal Pollen Index (SPI) was 91 in 2007and 454 in 2013, which indicates a five-fold increase of ragweed pollen over thelast six years. The concentration level inwestern Istanbul during 2013 (whichcould be representative for the Turkishregion Thrace) falls in the range of theannual PI of 200-500 reported for theThessaloniki area in Greece (2). Themean daily concentration during the sea-son increased from 1.49 grains/m3 in2007 to 7.44 grains/m3 in 2013. In 2013,the concentration on the peak day(24.08.2013) was 51 grains/m3, while itwas 20 grains/m3 in 2007 (1). Between11.08.2013-09.09.2013, fourteen dayshad concentrations greater than 10grains/m3. The difference in airborneconcentrations between 2007 and 2013was highly significant (p<0.0001). Con-

clusion: In light of these results and theassumption that a Hirst-type trap repre-sents mostly the flora in the range of 30km from the receptor site (3), there is astrong indication of a local ragweed pop-ulation. With regards to the implicationsfor allergy sufferers, a forthcoming clini-cal panel study will shed light on the lev-el of ragweed sensitization among thepopulation of Istanbul.

References

1. Zemmer F, Karaca F, Ozkaragoz F. Scienceof the Total Environment, 2012, 430, 101-108.

2. Smith M, Cecchi L, Skjoth CA, Karrer G,Sikoparija B, 2013 Environment Interna-tional, 61, 115-126.

3. Skjoth CA, Smith M, Sikoparija B, StachA, Myszkowsk D, Kasprzyk I, Radisic P,Stjepanovi B, Hrga I, Apatini A, MagyarhD, Paldyh A, Ianovici N. Agricultural andForest Meteorology 2010, 150, 1203–1210.

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Update on airborne ragweed pollenmonitored in IstanbulF. ZEMMER

Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey - Email: [email protected]


Clinical aspects andgenetic/environmental

factors influencing ragweedpollen allergenicity

Chair: Claudio Ortolani, Sandra Citterio

Session III


In Austria, about 20% of pollen-allergicindividuals suffer from weed pollen aller-gy. Before 1990, mugwort (Artemisia vul-garis) pollen was the main cause of sea-sonal allergy in late summer. In the 1990’sragweed (Ambrosia artemisifolia) plantshave been brought in from Hungary, andsince 2005 the number of reports on rag-weed plants tremendously increased (1).With the presence of these plants, theragweed pollen load and the prevalence ofragweed pollen allergy increased (2). Tofight the threat of uncontrolled ragweedexpansion and allergic sensitization,measures were initiated during the last 10years and financed by national and feder-al agencies. Projects were started to inves-tigate ragweed biology, geography anderadication strategies. Agricultural prod-ucts potentially containing ragweed seedsbecame controlled, and the generalawareness was increased by informationcampaigns. Studies revealed that from1997 and 2007 neither the total pollencounts nor the prevalence of ragweedsensitization (i.e. presence of ragweed-specific serum IgE) increased to the ex-tent that the plant reports had suggested.During the last 6 years the total ragweedpollen load remained relatively constant.Interestingly, the pollen season also be-came shorter. Thus, the relevance of rag-weed pollen allergy in Austria for themoment may be rated “intermediate”. A

major problem in the assessment of rag-weed allergy arises from cross-reactionswith mugwort pollen allergens. As theragweed pollen season overlaps with themugwort pollen season, diagnosis usingpollen extracts is especially difficult in ar-eas with exposure to both pollen species.In 2004, relevant mugwort and ragweed-pollen allergens became available by mo-lecular cloning and were useful tools toaddress the question of immunologiccross- versus co-sensitization in patientsallergic to both allergen sources at theIgE- and T cell level. Mugwort- and rag-weed pollen contain one major allergeneach, Art v 1 and Amb a 1 respectively.We found that Art v 1 has a uniform Tcell response to one single peptide withinthis protein. Art v 1-specific T cells gen-erally did not cross-react with the corre-sponding peptide from the homolog pro-tein in ragweed pollen (Amb a 4). In con-trast, for Amb a 1 we found multiple Tcell activating regions that can be widelypresented in the population by diverseHLA-class II molecules. Amb a 1-in-ducedT cells reacted weakly with Art v 6,the Amb a 1-homolog in mugwortpollen, whereas Art v 6-induced T cellsresponded stronger to Amb a 1. Art v 6contains only a few T cell epitopes whichcross-react with Amb a 1. At the humorallevel, cross-inhibition experiments indi-cated that in patients sensitized to both

weeds, IgE is largely cross-reactive.How-ever, Amb a 1 possesses more IgE-epi-topes or alternatively binds IgE withhigher affinity than Art v 6.Thus, Amb a1 can elicit more diverse allergen-specificIgE- and T cell responses and dominatesthe cross-reactivity with its homolog.Nevertheless, in regions with high mug-wort pollen exposure Art v 6 can sensitizeby itself. Thus, it cannot be excluded thatin Vienna Art v 6-sensitization mighthave facilitated sensitization to Amb a 1by epitope cross-recognition of B and Tcells at the time ragweed began to invadeAustria.Together, the major allergens Artv 1 and Amb a 1 do not essentially con-tribute to the cross-reactivity of the twoweed pollen species. By assessing IgEagainst the major allergens Art v 1 andAmb a 1, cross- vs. co-sensitization toboth weeds can be discriminated and hasimplications for specific immunotherapy.

References

1. Essl F. 2011. http://www.ages.at/ ages/ages-a k a d e m i e / a r c h i v / d o k u m e n t a -tion/programm-2011/ragweed-25112011/

2. Jäger S. 2007. http://www.noel.gv.at/ Gesund-heit/Gesundheitsvorsorge-Forschung-/Umwe l tm e d i z i n - u n dUmwe l t h y -giene/GS2_Gesundheitsvorsorge_Ragweed.html#Downloads

Weed pollen allergy in Austria: cross-and co-sensitization against ragweedand mugwort pollenB. JAHN-SCHMID1, K. BASTL2, U. E. BERGER2, W. HEMMER3, R. ASERO4, F. FERREIRA5, B. BOHLE1

1Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research - Email: [email protected] Group Aerobiology and Pollen Information, Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Medical University of Vienna,3Allergiezentrum Floridsdorf, Vienna, Austria,4Clinica San Carlo, Paderno Dugnano, Italy,5Department of Molecular Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

2/2014 35



The common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisi-ifolia L.) is the most widespread weed inHungary and some other parts of Europe.In spite of strict legal regulations and in-tensive chemical and mechanical contrast-ing measures this invasive species isspreading (Kazinczi et al. 2009), and rep-resents an example of aggressive invasionall over the world. Besides its economicimpact on crop yield, it represents a majorhealth problem because of its strongly al-lergenic pollen. While some members ofthe Amb a I pollen allergen gene familyhave already been isolated (Rafnar et al.1991, Hiller et al. 1998, Ivanciuc et al.2009a,b, Oezguen et al 2009), little isknown about the floral genes of Am-brosia. Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a monoe-cious dicotyledonous bushy weed, withdense male flowers in terminal racemes onthe branches, while female flowers arepresent in the axils of upper leaves. An av-erage plant is able to produce 6 thousandmillion pollen grains, and thousands ofseeds (Kazinczi et al. 2009). Consideringthat just in Hungary ragweed covers morethan 5% of arable land (Novák et al. 2009)

and that it is acclimatizing and spreadingrapidly, the allergy problem may turnmore severe and it is unlikely that theplant will be controlled effectively withthe presently applied methods. We believethat more detailed understanding of theplant at the molecular genetic level mayhelp the elaboration of new protectiontechnologies. To this end in the presentstudy we aim to isolate genes which play adetermining role in the development andidentity of floral organs and in reproduc-tion biology of ragweed. In this study,samples for analysis were taken from sixplants which grew under natural condi-tions in our experimental garden. Fromeach plant male and female flowers, aswell as young leaves were biweekly sam-pled throughout the flowering season. Formale flowers seven, while for female flow-ers nine developmental stages were deter-mined. For each stage male and femaleflowers were collected separately, and atthe same time young leaves were sampled,too. From the samples RNA was extracted byRNAzol (MRC, USA), column purified

and treated with DNase. cDNA synthesisand subtractive hybridization was accord-ing to the recommendation of the PCR-Select cDNA subtraction kit (Clontech,USA). The subtractions were done inthree different ways to get sequence col-lections which represent: 1) floral genes,2) genes expressed only in male flowers,and 3) genes expressed only in femaleflowers. Since the subtracted sequencesare short (<300 bp) regions of genes, forthe isolation of the complete genes a maleflower and a female flower cDNA librarywas constructed using the same RNApools which have been used for subtrac-tion. For cDNA library construction theIn-Fusion Smarter Directional cDNALibrary Construction Kit (Clontech,USA) was used. For the functional analy-sis of isolated genes we elaborated a ge-netic transformation and regenerationsystem of the common ragweed to silencegenes with RNAi constructions and tostudy the changes on the regeneratedplants. Our actual results on the analysisof floral and reproduction related geneswill be presented here.

36 G.E.A.


Towards the isolation of floral andreproduction related genes of thecommon ragweed (ambrosiaartemisiifolia l.) J. TALLER, K.K. MÁTYÁS, E. NAGY, E. FARKAS, B. KOLICS

University of Pannonia, Keszthely, Hungary - Email: [email protected]


In the area of Milan a concomitant sen-sitization to ragweed and mugwort iscommon to many patients and given theoverlapping flowering periods of the twoplant, so far it has not been possible todiagnose the primary allergen sensitizingsource and decide the right im-munotherapy. The objective of this studywas to elucidate whether double-sensi-tized patients are co-sensitized or cross-sensitized and in the last case, to definethe primary sensitizer. Patients under-went skin tests with ragweed and mug-

wort extracts. Sera were then collectedand analysed for their IgE reactivity torArt v 1 and Amb a 1 by ImmunoCAPassay and to Amb a 1, Art v 6, Art v 1isoforms through a proteomic approach.Results showed that sera from patientsmonosensitized to ragweed contain agreat variety of IgE directed against epi-topes specific of all Amb a 1 isoforms.On the contrary, IgE antibodies of allthe examined double-sensitized patientswho were shown to be primarily sensi-tized to mugwort, reacted with mugwort

Art v 1 and Art v 6 allergens and cross-reacted with few isoforms of Amb a 1.Finally, sera of double-sensitized pa-tients who resulted primarily sensitizedto ragweed contained IgE reacting toallAmb a 1 isoforms and in part cross-re-acting to Art v 6. No really co-sensitizedpatient was found. This study shows thatArt v 6 plays an important role in mug-wort allergy and that the cross-reactivitybetween Art v 6 and Amb a 1 is frequentin Milan area, clinically relevant, andbidirectional.

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Concomitant sensitization to ragweedand mugwort pollen: a re-evaluation ofallergen cross-reactivity in milan areaR. ASERO1, A. GHIANI2, R. AINA2, G. MISTRELLO3, R. GENTILI2, S. CITTERIO2

1Ambulatorio di Allergologia, Clinica San Carlo, Paderno Dugnano (MI), Italy - Email: [email protected] di Science Ambientali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.3Lofarma S.p.A. Medical & Research Department, Milan, Italy.


Testing allergenicity of ambrosiaartemisiifolia pollen in miceM.M. EPSTEIN1, M. DEBIASI1, C.B. ANEA1, G. KARRER2

1 Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria - Email: [email protected] University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

G.E.A.38

Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a highly invasiveplant with pollen that causes severe aller-gy. Studies indicate that pollens respondbiochemically to environmental changessuch as air quality, extreme weather, andground pollution, but a correlation be-tween these changes and human healthremains unknown. We sought to establishan experimental model of allergic diseaseto test the effect of environmental changeon Ambrosia pollen. We administeredcommercially available pollen (Allergon,Sweden) and pollen collected from areas

near Vienna, Austria intranasally toBALB/c mice over a period of either 10 or21 days. We then evaluated allergic re-sponses locally in the lungs and systemi-cally. Groups of mice receiving intranasalAmbrosia pollen had severe allergic lunginflammation, goblet cell hyperplasia andhypersecretion in 10 days, but no serumAmbrosia-specific antibodies were detect-ed. After 21 days, mice developed severeallergic lung disease with concomitanthigh titres of serum Ambrosia-specific an-tibodies. Doses of Ambrosia were titrated

to generate a dose-response curve. Com-mercially available processed Ambrosiapollen was compared with collected popu-lations of pollens. The pollens were foundto induce different responses in the mice,which lead to varying severity of allergicdisease. Correlations between the environ-mental conditions and disease severitysuggest and that environmental changesimpact the allergenicity of pollen. This ex-perimental mouse model provides novelopportunities to study pollen-induced al-lergic disease.



Biology and allergenicity of ambrosiaspp. (ragweed) in IsraelY. YAIR1, 2, M. SIBONY2, A. GOLDBERG3, E. SHAHAR4, B. RUBIN2

1Porter School of Environmental Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel - Email: [email protected] of Plant Sci. & Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel;3Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel;4Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel

2/2014 39

In the past three decades’ Ambrosia spp.invaded vast areas in Israel. Five speciesof Ambrosia were identified over theyears: (1) the annual native species, A.maritima typical of the Mediterraneanbasin, was last observed in 1981and de-clared an endangered species; (2) A. con-fertiflora, a perennial herb identified inIsrael in 1990 -avery aggressive plant,forming large stands reaching a height of3 m’ with a very dense underground sys-tem of rhizomes and roots, and spreadsvery quickly; (3) A. tenuifolia, perennial,documented in Israel since 1984, growsonly in isolated areas; (4) A. artemisiifo-lia,appears sometimes in Israel but is notestablished, perhaps due to the dry sum-mer; (5) A. trifida, annual weed, last ob-served in Israel at 2009. Invasion pathsof Ambrosia in Israel were by contami-nated imported grains, spread along riv-er banks, roads and railway tracks and by

themovement of contaminated soil. Thespecies differ in their life cycle (annual orperennial), flowering season, flowerstructure and propagule shape. Particu-larly noticeable is the structure of A. con-fertiflora’s achene that through hookedprickles can be caught in objects movingin the habitat (epizoochorous transport)thus contributing to the species dissemi-nation. Germination and reproductionexperiments conducted under controlledenvironment show that seed germinationrate exceeding 50% for both perennialspecies (N>1000). Seeds germinate inlight and emerge from upper soil level.Single plant of A. confertiflora creates anaverage of 45 sprouts within fourmonths whereas A. tenuifolia forms anaverage of 245 new sprouts during thesame period of time. Hence, attempts tocontrol Ambrosia by mowing are ineffi-cient. Our preliminary results show that

the number of A. confertiflora plantssprouting from rhizomes is increasingafter removal of the plant apex indicat-ing apex dominance, while A. tenuifo-liarhizomes number does not increase.The Ambrosia is wind pollinated, pro-ducing large quantities of highly aller-genic pollen. Allergy skin tests experi-ments were performed in two hospitalsin Israel, using pollen extracts preparedfrom pollen collected in the field of theperennial species and commercial ex-tracts for A. artemisiifolia. So far we test-ed 147 volunteers. Results shows that20% of the tested people reacted at leastto one of the species and that A. conferti-flora is much more allergenic (15%) thanA. tenuifolia and (5%) A. artemisiifolia(5%). The rapid growth and spread ofAmbrosia spp. in Israel, is a threat toagricultural crops and public health.



The area of ragweed plant growth is notcongruent with the area of ragweedpollen deposition. Moreover, durationand intensity of ragweed pollen seasonsdiffer significantly across and within dif-ferent countries and between biogeo-graphical regions, thus suggesting alsodivergent levels of tolerance to airborneragweed pollen loads. Spatial variationof health impact of airborne ragweedpollen was studied by using data fromsymptomatic people in France, the Pan-nonian Plain (i.e. Eastern Austria andSerbia) and Germany from the years2009 until 2013. Data was collected bythe Patients Hayfever Diary (PHD,www.pollendiary.com). PHD is a freeonline and app supported diary for

pollen allergy sufferers amassing recordsfor location of stay, overall feeling, or-gan-specific symptoms, symptom severi-ty, and medicine intake. Acquired symp-tom scores together with correspondingpollen counts were used to calculate localsymptom load indices (SLI) and henceestimate the allergenic power of ragweedpollen in various regions. It is evidentthat people in Serbia suffer most fromragweed pollen; significantly more thanpeople in other countries under studyhere. France shows the second highestvalues of SLI, followed by Germany andAustria. It should be noted that althoughragweed loads are lower in Germany, theGerman residents suffer from equallyhigh daily ragweed pollen levels more

than users in Austria. The results con-firm spatial heterogeneity in allergologi-cal importance of ragweed pollen withinregions under investigation. Burdens incore areas (i.e. Pannonian Plain andRhône Valley) correspond to annuallyrecorded pollen loads. At this stageproblematical differences concerninghigh load – moderate response and lowload – moderate response (Germany –Austria) are fairly explained by the SLI,but full clarification desires PHD ex-ploitation also for other parts of Europe,where ragweed pollen is commonlyrecorded in the atmosphere (i.e. Hun-gary, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia,Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Be-larus, Poland and Romania).

40 G.E.A.


Symptom load index in europeancountries infested by ragweed:comparison of the situation of hayfever sufferers in Austria, Germany,Serbia and FranceK. BASTL1, M. KMENTA1, K.-C. BERGMANN2, B. SIKOPARIJA3, M. THIBAUDON4, S. JÄGER1, U. BERGER1

1 Research Group Aerobiology and Pollen Information, Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria -Email: [email protected]

2Charité, Allergy-Centre-Charité, Klinik für Dermatologie, Venerologie und Allergologie, Berlin, Germany;3Laboratory for Palynology, Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad, Serbia4RNSA and EAS Le Plat du Pin BRUSSIEU, France


2/2014 41

Introduction

FP7 project ATOPICA (Atopic diseasesin changing climate, land use and air qual-ity) supported by EU Grant agreementNO: CP 282687 explores the combinedpan-European impact of changes in cli-mate, land use and air pollution on aller-gen pollen-induced diseases with an ac-cent on atopy due to ragweed sensitiza-tion. Sensitization to ragweed pollencorrelates with levels of airborne pollenconcentration in environment, but canbe enhanced by other environmental fac-tors such as air pollution.

Material/Methods

Cohort of 3590 children, aged 4-10years, was recruited from 3 regions ofCroatia differing in airborne pollen con-centrations (Slavonia, Zagreb and sur-rounding end Dalmatia). Each partici-pant underwent skin prick test (SPT) to

the standard set of aeroallergens. Foreach region, pollen concentrations andair quality data were gathered from au-thorized institutions.

Results

A total of 369 children were sensitized toragweed pollen. Prevalence of ragweedsensitization was 14.84 % in Zagreb area,14.26 % in Slavonia and 1.52 % in Dal-matia. Comparing the highest pollen con-centrations during ragweed pollinatingperiod among 3 regions, Dalmatia has thelowest concentration of ragweed pollen of30-40 grains/m3, while Zagreb measures250-300 grains/m3 and Slavonia 700-1000 grains/m3 per 24 hours. Analysis ofsensitization in two age groups (4-6 and7-10 years) reveals higher prevalence ofragweed, birch and D. pteronyssinus sen-sitization as well as double sensitization(birch and ragweed) in older age group forall 3 regions. Sensitization to above aller-

gens was more prevalent in male partici-pants. After two pollen seasons of follow-up, de novo sensitized children wererecorded: 2.88% in Zagreb area, 2,73% inSlavonia and 0,00% in Dalmatia. Analysisof de novo sensitization in two age groupsshows more de novo sensitized children inolder age group for all regions. Pollen di-ary data (data on overall simptom score,eyes, nose, lungs symptoms/problems, us-age of medicine and daily activity) alsoshowed correlation between ragweedpollen concentrations and severity ofsymptoms.

Conclusions

Region of Slavonia measures highestragweed pollen concentrations and alsomost de novo sensitized children, whichleads to assumption that de novo sensiti-zation rates are primary correlated to ex-posure levels to ragweed pollen.

Risk for de novo sensitization toragweed in Croatian childrenA. VECENAJ, A. M. GOSPIC, M. PERICA, I. BANIC, J. ŽIVKOVIC, D. PLAVEC, M. TURKALJA

Children’s Hospital Srebrnjak, Zagreb, Croatia - Email: [email protected]



Ragweed pollen allergy:veterinary aspects

Chair: Alessandro Grittini, Roberta Sacchi

Session IV


452/2014


Hypersensitivity disorders are commonin domestic animals. In particular, atopicdiseases are frequently diagnosed indogs, cats and to a lesser extent in hors-es. The major clinical manifestations canbe atopic dermatitis (AD), recurrent ur-ticaria (RU), rhino-conjunctivitis andrespiratory disease. The first one is by farthe most common in dogs. Atopic dogscan manifest conjunctivitis (more than50% of cases) and quite rarely rhinitis orreverse sneezing. Although canine mod-els of allergic rhinitis and asthma, in-cluding ragweed sensitized Beagles, ex-ist, spontaneous allergic respiratory dis-eases are not expected to occur in dogs.Cats can manifest conjunctivitis andsneezing associated with cutaneous signsor can develop allergic respiratory syn-dromes, such as feline asthma and felineallergic bronchitis. Atopic horses canmanifest cutaneous diseases, AD andRU rarely associated with rhino-con-junctivitis, or chronic lower airway dis-eases, the recurrent airway obstruction(RAO) and the inflammatory airwaydisease (IAD), or a combination of skinand respiratory signs. The specific role ofragweed pollen in triggering atopic dis-eases has been only marginally investi-gated in veterinary medicine. In dogs,the most important route of allergen ex-posure seems to be the epicutaneousroute. In a canine model of atopic Bea-gles an early exposure to probiotics (Lac-tobacillus rhamnosus strain GG) do notprotect from the epicutaneous ragweedsensitization but leads to a less severeclinical manifestations after allergenchallenge (1). According to a recent

study, clinical manifestations in dogsspontaneously sensitized to short rag-weed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) do notdiffer from those usually reported inatopic dogs, 79% of that dogs were in-door living dogs and 66% showed unsea-sonal symptoms (2). The prevalence ofragweed sensitization in atopic dogs varygreatly from different countries andseems to correlate quite well with theplant’s geographical distribution.Among studies from North America,where ragweed is native, two testing a“mixed ragweed” allergen reported ahigh prevalence of 35% and 59% and athird one using individual allergens ofshort ragweed, western ragweed (A.psilostachya) and prairie sage (A. tridenta-ta) reported a prevalence of 34%, 37%and 35%, respectively (3,4). A studyevaluating 1000 intradermal skin tests(IDT) from atopic dogs living in South-eastern Australia showed a prevalence of13,4% for short ragweed and of 10,1%for western ragweed (5). Among Euro-pean studies, short ragweed was themost usually tested. In two studies per-formed during the 1990s the prevalencereported was quite low, varying from7,7% (Greece) to 9,2% (France) (3). In-stead, recently published results fromNorthern Italy, especially the province ofMilan, and Serbia, regions severely af-fected by ragweed colonization, revealedthat A. artemisiifolia was the second mostcommon allergen involved in canine ADwith a prevalence of 21,6% and 66%, re-spectively (6, 2). Interestingly in a 2006study from Hungary, another countrywhere Ambrosia spp. is highly diffused,

atopic dogs reacted more frequently tomugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) (7,8%)than short ragweed (<4%) (8). As humanpatients, many atopic dogs sensitized toragweed also react to mugwort, studiesinvestigating if it is due to cross-reactiv-ity or co-sensitization are lacking. Ogn-jenovic et al. have recently identified themajor allergens of A. artemisiifolia in-volved in canine AD using an immuno-proteomic approach (9). Similar to hu-mans, these were represented by all fiveisoallergens of the Amb a 1 group. Somecanine sera also react to the � fragment ofpollen allergen Amb a 1.0201, whereasnone of them recognized lower mass al-lergens such as the � fragment of Amb a1 and Amb a 8 variants. The future useof these purified antigens in allergic test-ing as well as in allergen-specific im-munotherapy could greatly help clini-cians and investigators. To date, no dataare available regarding the clinical re-sponse of atopic dogs to ragweed-specif-ic immunotherapy and it would be diffi-cult to perform studies with this purposebecause cases of monosensitization arevery rare (less than 0,5%, data unpub-lished). No substantial data are availableabout ragweed sensitization in catswhere the use and the interpretation ofallergic tests, both IDT and serum IgEtesting, is still controversial. In equinemedicine there are few studies evaluatingpositive reactions to aeroallergens inatopic horses by means of IDT or serumtesting. In those reporting data aboutragweed sensitization usually a “mixedragweed” allergen was used. In two stud-ies from North America horses affected

Ragweed pollen allergy: veterinaryaspectsN. FURIANI

Ospedale Veterinario I Portoni Rossi, Bologna, Italy - Private practice, Perugia, Italy - Email: [email protected]


by AD, RU and RAO/IAD showed aprevalence of positive reactions of 57%(4/7), 60% (6/10) and 12,5% (2/16), re-spectively (10, 11). In an European studyfrom Austria 43 IDT from atopic horseswere evaluated but no positive reactionsto ragweeds were recorded (12). Despitethe limited data, ragweed doesn’t seem toplay an important role in inducing atopicdiseases in horses.

References

1. Marsella R, Santoro D, Ahrens K. Early ex-posure to probiotics in a canine model ofatopic dermatitis has long-term clinical andimmunological effects. Vet Immunol Im-munopathol, 2012, 146, 185-189.

2. Milcic-Matic N, Popovic N, Lazarevic M,Medenica L. The role of Ambrosia artemisi-ifolia allergen in canine atopic dermatitis. Ac-ta Vet, 2010, 60, 183-196.

3. Hill PB, De Boer DJ. The ACVD task forceon canine atopic dermatitis (IV): environ-mental allergens. Vet Immunol Im-munopathol, 2001, l81, 169–186.

4. Mueller RS, Chapman PL, RosychukREW et al. Evaluation of cross-reactivity ofallergens by use of intradermal testing inatopic dogs. Am J Vet Res, 2002, 63, 874-879.

5. Mueller RS, Bettenay SV, Tideman L. Aero-allergens in canine atopic dermatitis insouth-eastern Australia based on 1000 intra-dermal skin tests. Aust Vet J, 2000, 78, 392-399.

6. Furiani N, Scarampella F, Noli C, Ordeix L.Studio retrospettivo di 486 test intradermicieffettuati su cani atopici nel Nord Italia. Vet-

erinaria, 2009, 23, 41-46.7. Tarpataki N, Papa K, Reiczigel J et al. Preva-lence and features of canine atopic dermatitisin hungary. Acta Vet Hung, 2006, 54,353–366.

8. Ognjenovic J, Milcic-Matic N, Smiljanica K etal. Immunoproteomic characterization of Am-brosia artemisiifolia pollen allergens in canineatopic dermatitis. Vet Immunol Im-munopathol, 2013, 155, 38– 47.

9. Lorch G, Hillier A, Kwochka et al. Results ofintradermal tests in horses without atopy andhorses with atopic dermatitis or recurrent ur-ticaria. Am J Vet Res, 2001, 62, 1051-1059.

10. Lorch G, Hillier A, Kwochka et al. Results ofintradermal tests in horses without atopy andhorses with chronic obstructive pulmonarydisease. Am J Vet Res, 2001, 62, 389–397.

11. Kolm-Stark G, Wagner R. Intradermal skintesting in icelandic horses in Austria. EquineVet J, 2002, 34, 405-410.

46 G.E.A.



Ragweed pollen allergy:public health issues

Chair: Maira Bonini, Michel Thibaudon

Session V


492/2014


In the province of Québec (Canada),wherever ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifo-lia) is abundant, close to 18% of the pop-ulation suffers from allergic rhinitislinked to pollen dispersal. In the contextof climate change and global warming,the dispersal of common ragweed, associ-ated to a longer pollen season (1), furtherincreases public health concerns. There-fore, there is a need to provide conclusivedata on the impact of the control of rag-weed on health and on quality of life.These will support decisions on interven-tions to prioritize. Hence, an epidemio-logical study including a 4-year follow-up of 400 allergic volunteers was previ-ously carried out in the Montérégie re-gion (province of Quebec) between 2007and 2010. Initial results showed that,when applied twic eat specific periods(mid-July and mid-August), the concert-ed control of ragweed involving a limitednumber of key actors (i.e., the municipal-ity, the ministry of transport and man-agers of large lands) induced a significantreduction in pollen concentrations. It al-so decreased the symptoms of allergic

rhinitis and improved the quality of life.Following these results, further researchwas conducted in order to include a spa-tial analysis which attempted at estab-lishing the relationship between the landuse, the spatial dispersion of ragweed andthe pollen concentrations. Its main pur-pose was to attribute an individual levelof pollen exposure to each allergic partic-ipant enrolled in the epidemiologic studyin relation with health symptoms. Thisapproach is innovative and promising inthe ragweed field, however additionalvalidations are needed to provide reliable.

Conclusions

Furthermore, a cost-utility analysis wasperformed in order to assess the econom-ic impact of a concerted intervention forthe control of ragweed. Clinical data fromthe epidemiological study were convertedinto utility values using the method pro-posed by Keiding and Jorgenson (2). Thecosts of all components of the interven-tion totalized CDN$60,603. The con-

certed intervention was associated to again on health of 10.15 Quality AdjustedLife Years (QALYs). The incrementalcost-utility ratio derived from these pa-rameters, CDN$5,744/QALY, demon-strated that concerted management ofragweed is highly cost-effective. There-fore, the findings emerging from this re-search help to identify major components(e.g., municipal regulation, localisation ofpriority areas for intervention or choice ofthe optimal intervention period related tothe biology of the plant) of importance tomaximize the efficacy of the control ofragweed. Overall, these recent analysesreinforce advocacy in favor of a concertedmanagement for the control of ragweed.

References

1. Ziska L., et al. Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, 2011, 108, 4248-4251.

2. Keiding H. and K.P. Jørgensen. CurrentMedical Research and Opinion, 2007, 23,1113-1120.

Ragweed pollen allergy and publichealth issues: insights from recentresearchN. NOISEL1, J. LACHAIN2, M-S. CLOUTIER3, P. KRZYWKOWSKI1, E. MASSON1

1Direction de santé publique, Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de la Montérégie, Longueuil, Québec, Canada Email: [email protected]

2Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 3Centre Urbanisation Culture Société, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montréal, Québec, Canada


The protection of plant health and biodi-versity is an important issue in manycountries over the world. The protectionof plant health covers a wide range of ar-eas such as the ‘legislative and regulatorymeasures [..] that include eradication andcontainment campaigns, surveys, risk as-sessments, [..] certification and marketingschemes’ (Ebbels, 2003). Plant health is-sues play an important role in the WTOnegotiations as individual countries are al-lowed to introduce trade barriers in orderto protect their domestic agricultureagainst the introduction of plant pests. Al-though the probability of a catastrophedue to introduction and spread of newplant pests is generally very low, the eco-nomic and environmental impacts can beextremely large if a pest does occur. This

holds in particular also for the conse-quences of common Ragweed as the pres-ence of this species has consequences foragriculture (yield losses, extra costs formanagement), trade in plant products (asseeds may be spread through e.g. cereals)and human health. The consequences forhuman health may be particularly impor-tant, as not only the well-being of peopleliving in infested areas is at stake, but alsorevenues from tourism and recreation.Na-tional plant health services have been as-signed the task of safeguarding the nation-al plant health status. Under EU legisla-tion, national plant health services are re-quired to inhibit the spread and introduc-tion of harmful organisms (EuropeanCommission, 2000). In EU directive2000/29 and its Annexes (European

Commission, 2000). In addition, in thecase of Ambrosia pollen also humanhealth authorities are involved in monitor-ing and managing exposure to Ambrosiapollen. This paper analyses the institu-tional framework associated with manage-ment of the Ambrosia. First, a conceptualmodel of management of Ambrosia de-picting the relations between variousstakeholders involved in management ofAmbrosia such as farmers, citizens, planthealth authorities and human health au-thorities. Second, this paper discusses thepublic and private good characteristics ofAmbrosia and the consequences for thechoice of the regulatory and institutionalarrangements for managing Ambrosia.The roles of the public and private sectorsin managing Ambrosia are clarified.

50 G.E.A.


Public and private roles in managementof ambrosiaA. OUDE LANSINK

Wageningen University, the Netherlands - Email: [email protected]


HALT AMBROSIA is a research proj-ect funded by the European Commis-sion, DG Environment (07.0322/2010/58340/SUB/B2) running from Feb.2011 till Feb. 2014.The overall aim of the project is to con-tribute to the reduction of the prevalenceof the invasive alien plant Ambrosiaartemisiifolia in European countries inorder to reduce the burden on publichealth, agriculture and biodiversity. Partners in Germany, Hungary, Slove-nia, Austria and Denmark contributed

to research in the following fields:- Biological fundamentals.- Non-chemical and integrated control

strategies.- Best use of herbicides.- Impact on non-target species and bio-

diversity.On the basis of these studies we devel-

oped recommendation for best theways to

- prevent the spread of Ambrosia to newhabitats;

- reduce the risks of establishment of

new populations;- control existing populations;- dispose of plant material that may

contain viable seeds.With these recommendations we pro-pose elements of strategies against com-mon ragweed that take into specific sce-narios into account, e.g., the level of in-festation of a given country or region, le-gal opportunities to use herbicides, etc.The out come of the project will be usedby the EU Commission as a pilot study forthe possibilities to control invasive species.

512/2014


Results of the EU project haltambrosiaU. STARFINGER, U. SÖLTER, A. VERSCHWELE & THE HALT AMBROSIA TEAM

Julius Kühn-Institut, Braunschweig, Germany - Email: [email protected]


Ecological studies show a temporal asso-ciation between the presence of ragweed,the consumption of anti-allergy drugsand hospitalizations for asthma. Howev-er, there are few panel studies, showingthe relationship between the concentra-tion of ragweed pollen in the air and theintensity of symptoms among patientswith hay fever on a significant number ofsubjects.Two studies were carried out in France,based on questionnaires filled in by pa-tients themselves: - for the first study POLPAT (1), 37 pa-

tients suffering from hay fever duringragweed pollination period, completeda daily questionnaire scored from 0 to3 on the intensity of nasal and ocularsymptoms in July, August and Sep-tember 2009 and 2010 (2,960 dailydata). RNSA provided the rate ofpollen, Météo-France meteorologicalparameters, ADEME PM10, NO2, andO3.

- for the second study, information onthe user´s location (biogeographical

regions), pollen data were also provid-ed by RNSA pollen traps. Health im-pact was assessed based on the entriesof Patient´s Hay fever Diary (2)(PHD) users, who fill in their overallfeeling, organ specific symptoms andmedication use on a web-based plat-form. All data were included to calcu-late a symptom score.

In Polpat study, the rate of patients withvarious types of symptoms increased in alinear, significant way with exposure toragweed. For an increase of 10 grains/m3,odd-ratio of ocular symptoms was 1.324in 2009 and 1.049 in 2010. For nasalsymptoms, the effect of ragweed pollenwas more important on weekends (OR =1.426 in 2009) than on weekdays (OR =1.184).The PHD results show that there is adose-response relationship between theragweed pollen exposure and the symp-tom severity: the onset threshold ofsymptoms is about four pollens/m3 of air.Biogeographical variation in symptomseverity was observed. In conclusion,

clinical response among sensitized pa-tients shows a linear and significant rela-tionship, without any threshold, betweenthe increase in ragweed pollen and nasaland ocular symptoms in POLPAT study.PHD study gives insight into the rela-tion between health condition andpollen exposure, and confirm that onlyfew ragweed pollen grains are enough totrigger symptoms.

References

1. Denis Caillaud, Michel Thibaudon, SylvieMartin, Claire Ségala, Jean-Pierre Besan-cenot, Bernard Clot, Hughes François:Short-term effects of airborne ragweedpollen on clinical symptoms of pollinoisis ina panel of 31 patients. Journal of Investiga-tional Allergology and Clinical Immunology,vol. 24, 2014, n° 4, sous presse.

2. Berger U, Karatzas K, Jaeger S, VoukantsisD, Sofiev M, Brandt O, Zuberbier T,Bergmann KC. Personalized pollen-relatedsymptom-forecast information services forallergic rhinitis patients in Europe, Allergy07/2013; DOI:10.1111/all.12181

52 G.E.A.


Health impact of exposure to ragweedpollen in FranceM. THIBAUDON, G. OLIVER

RNSA, Brussieu, France - Email: [email protected]


Rhône-Alpes region is the French regionwhich is the most affected by ragweedpollen pollination. The aim of this study isto estimate the healthcare cost of this aller-gy, thanks to different indicators from thedatabase of repayment health insurance,like purchase of anti-allergic drugs, doctorconsultation or short work stoppage. Theseindicators were selected comparing simi-larities between ragweed pollen peaks anddate of drug purchase for instance.The analysis concerns policyholdersfrom 6 to 64 of the general social securi-ty system who had at least one repay-ment for anti-allergic drugs during thepollination period of ragweeds and onthe other care consumptions like aller-

gens, consultations, search for specificIgE, desensitization, skin tests, treat-ment of asthma, and short work stop-page. In parallel, data about the ragweedpollination are provided by the RNSA inorder to analyze and corroborate map-ping of pollen peaks (exposure) with careconsumptions. Two hypotheses wereconsidered based on the drug consump-tion: one named “low hypothesis” corre-sponding to allergy sufferers who arecertainly sensitive to ragweed pollens(buying antihistaminic in August andSeptember) and one named “high hy-pothesis” corresponding to the same suf-ferers plus the ones who could be sensi-tive (buying drugs during the same peri-

od and also in October and November).In 2012, between 154914 (low hypothe-sis, +36% in comparison with 2008) and197870 (high hypothesis, +23% in com-parison with 2008) people used cares inrelation with allergy to ragweed. Healthcosts, estimated from repayment of ex-penditures of ambulatory cares and workstoppages, are evaluated between 11.3and 15.7 millions of euros. So the costfor each recipient is estimated between72.9 and 79.3 euros. This study shows areal increase in the number of allergysufferers to ragweed pollens in Rhône-Alpes region in the last years, maybemore important than the increase of theyearly amounts of ragweed pollens.

532/2014


Assessment of the healthcare costsrelated to ragweed in Rhone-AlpesregionA.GELAS1, M-A. CHAPGIER1, X. VITRY1, M. THIBAUDON2

1ARS Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France - Email: [email protected], Brussieu, France

Fig. 1 - Number of antihistamines boxes for 1000 recipients of the general social security system


Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifo-lia) is a neophyte from North Americawith a wide ecological tolerance andadaptation capacity that has allowed itsrapid spread throughout Europe. Theplant has harmful impacts on many sec-tors, particularly agriculture and humanhealth. In addition to increasing weedmanagement costs for farmers, the pollenof common ragweed is known to causesevere allergic reactions. The allergic re-actions associated with an exposure tocommon ragweed pollen are of twokinds: skin reactions (atopic dermatitis)and illnesses of the respiratory system (al-lergic rhinitis, hayfever and asthma). Be-cause its pollen is highly allergic, manycountries have adopted containment andmitigation measures against commonragweed. Most of the published contribu-tions on the health impacts of common

ragweed focus on countries with well-es-tablished populations of common rag-weed. In contrast, little is know about theimpacts of common ragweed in countrieswhere the common ragweed populationsis still in its lag phase. During this phase,a population adapts itself to the habitat’sconditions and the population size issmall. Our study aims at filling this gapand we find evidence that an invasivespecies still in its lag phase can have ad-verse impacts on human health. We choseSweden as our case study because theragweed population there is newly estab-lished, with the first flowering plant hav-ing been documented in the early 1990s.Our identification strategy relies on spa-tial and temporal variation in commonragweed population and health data. Da-ta for the distribution of common rag-weed populations are taken from the

Swedish Species Observation System,while health data come from the SwedishHealth and Welfare Statistical Database.We study the effect of common ragweedon in-patient care indicators for allergicrhinitis, asthma, and allergic contact der-matitis for the period 1998 to 2011. Wedevelop a reduced form regression modelthat we estimate with panel data estima-tion techniques, controlling for much ofthe unobserved heterogeneity in botani-cal and health data. To ensure the robust-ness of our findings, we test and correctfor heteroskedasticity and autocorrela-tion. We find small but significant delete-rious effects of ragweed presence on hu-man health. The estimates are robust to abattery of robustness checks. Our esti-mates show that an invasive species stillin its lag phase can yet have adverse im-pacts on human health.

54 G.E.A.


Common ragweed invasion in sweden andhuman health: preliminary results ofan impact assessmentS. STEINBACH, A. CHAMPETIER DE RIBES

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland - Email: [email protected]


Poster

Chair: Uwe Berger, Victoria Rodinkova

Session VI


572/2014


Since a few years, AFEDA have beenasked by some municipalities a methodfor an assessment of their fight(Déchamp and Méon, 2010, 2011,2013). The pollen dust flux method, setby Cour in 1974 in a lot of countries, wasused in this aim. Filters are the same asthose of the AFEDA traps (Cour mod-el) set at about 5 km. In the past, thismethod had not compared the pollina-tion period of a plant as its aim was on-ly to identify vegetation (often in thedesert). Actually, the greater difficulty ofthe new aim for using this method is tofind a not concreted track in a town! Forthat reason it is difficult to realize manystudies.

Methods

3 different tracks have been studied eachyear in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 (in Saint-Priest town) and 2 (in Mions town) in2012 and 2013: at the start of the Am-brosia (A) pollination period, week 30,and at the end of the A pollination peri-od, week 38. So results of 29 measuresare studied. Pollens were collected on thesame forbidden to circulation, with thesame type of cars, dirty tracks,. No pre-cipitations for three days. This pollendust flux method measures A pollennumbers/dust-gram and/km, their %

versus total pollen. Control of A pollenat the start of the season is necessary toknow the principal remain of the lastseason.

Results

At the start of the pollination period, Apollen/dust gram and/km are much lowerthan at the end, A % are always < 2% ofthe total flora pollen and are closed to theairborne A pollen. At the end of the polli-nation period, A pollen/dust-gramand/km, A % have always considerably in-creased and in most cases this increase iscoupled to airborne A pollen trap count.During all these years, at the end of theseason, these communities fights have notalways produced a decrease of the Aground pollen but they have decreased orthey are stable in town centre; rural area isthe more difficult one to clean.

Discussion

Pollen vegetation distribution is differ-ent at any time of the year and varieseach year, so the more reliable criterion ispollen number/km, because pollendust/gram depends on the type of theground and for instance of its humiditybeing different in each area, nevertheless

A % could be a positive facility to com-pare these data to the Ambrosia-type air-borne pollen but it must be controlled bythe other criterions. Our study is not to-tally new but the larger measures (29)versus former measures (9) are a signifi-cant novelty.

Conclusion

at the start of the A pollination period, Apollen has almost disappeared from theground and, even if the pollens grains arecaught with two different systems, their% seems to be related to the airborne Apollen trap count; at the end of the Apollination period, A pollen can de-creased after a local fight. This methodcan help us to understand the spread ofinvasive plants or weeds. In the case ofanemophilous pollens at the stage of re-search using the soil pollen flux method,coupled with a pollen trap might help tounderstand the spread of a plant. Themain difficult is in comparable tracks inhomogeneous environments: it is easierto have good results in the centre townthan in a technologic park and moreoverin a rural area. Another difficulty is tofind in towns not concreted tracks, so itis possible that we will not can obtain asecurity index for A pollen that was ourfirst aim.

The assessment of communities ragweedfights by the soil pollen dust fluxmethodC. DÉCHAMP1, H. MÉON1,2

1 Association Française d’Etude des Ambroisies (AFEDA) - E-mail: [email protected] Université Claude-Bernard Lyon1


Wide distribution of Ambrosia artemisi-ifolia L. on the territory of AP Vojvodi-na, as well as its high reproductive po-tential influenced the formation of seedreserves in the soil, so-called “seedbanks”. It has been established that rag-weed seeds maintain germination capa-bility for over 40 years, and that seedbank formation is an additional factorenabling this species to be one of themost competitive among weed-ruderalplants. Common ragweed (A. artemisiifo-lia L.) is nowadays considered an inva-sive weed, although it has been presentfor a long time as a weed species, at first

as a resident of ruderal sites, and lateroccurring as a frequent weed in rowcrops. Today this weed species is prima-rily recognised as a plant whose pollen isa strong allergen. This study examinedgermination rate of the seeds of A.artemisiifolia L. in relation to the tem-perature of their storage. The seeds werecollected in October and November2012 and 2013 from a large number ofplants in various microsites within eachof the 10 studied locations in the area ofAP Vojvodina. The collected seeds wereplaced in different environmental condi-tions with different temperature fluctua-

tions. On the basis of these conditions,the seeds were divided into three groups– the seeds vernalised at a temperature of-8°C, the seeds vernalised at 4°C and theseeds stored at room temperature. Ger-mination rate was determined after 9,14, 21 and 28 days after placing theseeds in a cold chamber. The results in-dicate that there is a statistical signifi-cance in the germination rate, that is, A.artemisiifolia L. seeds vernalised at -8 °Cshowed the highest germination rate incomparison to the seeds vernalised at4°C and the ones stored at room temper-ature.

58 G.E.A.


Germination of common ragweed seeds –ambrosia artemisiifolia l.B. KONSTANTINOVIC, B. KONSTANTINOVIC, M. POPOV, N. SAMARDŽIC

University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture, Department for Environmental and Plant Protection - Trg Dositeja Obradovi�a 8, 21 000 Novi SadEmail: [email protected]


Common ragweed pollen (Ambrosiaartemisiifolia) is known for its allergenicitycausing hay fever, rhinoconjunctivitis andasthma (1) to patients living in infested ar-eas. The dispersion of ragweed is anthro-pogenic, and because it is an invasiveplant, a number of control procedureshave been implemented whose effective-ness was measured. Measures on pollenemissions were compared between areaswith different level of management. In ad-dition to Hirst volumetric pollens traps ofthe RNSA network (2), it was decided touse passive traps SLT [SIGMA2 Like-Trap (3)] positioned in proximity near acontrolled or non-controlled area. SLTsamples were collected weekly during themonths of August and September.Two areas with different levels of infe-station were selected in France:- Infested areas: 12 SLT traps were set up:

• 8 traps in the department of Isère, inthe town of Estrablin with 2 trapsinnon-controlled areas and 6 in well-controlled areas.

• 4 traps in the department of Drôme,in the metropolitan area of Valencewith one trap in non-controlled areaand 3 in well-controlled areas.

- A few infested area in the departmentof Côte d’Or with four traps located inlightly infested areas (4) of which onein an area without ragweed plants andthree in areas with presence of smallamounts of ragweed plants.

Ragweed pollen amounts collected fromcontrolled areas and non-controlled ar-eas are different, with a maximum of afew hundred of pollen grains for con-trolled areas against a few to tens ofthousands for the non-treated areas. Onthe area not really infested, the quanti-ties of pollen are limited to low tens ofragweed pollen grains. Periods of heavypollination of ragweed pollens are thesame for SLT traps and for Hirst pollentraps. Even if the amounts of pollen col-lected from the well-controlled areas in-festations are still high, they are signifi-cantly less important than the amounts

present on non-controlled areas. Theset-up of management practices enableto locally reduce the pollen pressure butonly a generalized and integrated controlwill actually enable to relieve peopleaware.

References

1. Déchamp C., Méon H. Ambroisies, Am-brosia, polluants biologiques. ARPPAMEditions.Lyon, 2002, 287.

2. Thibaudon M., Hamberger C., Guilloux L.,Massot R. Ragweed pollen in France: Ori-gin, diffusion, exposure. European Annalsof Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2010,42, 6, 209-215.

3. Hofmann F., Otto M., Kuhn U., Ober S.,Schlechtriemen U., Vögel R. A new methodfor in situ measurement of Bt-Maize pollendeposition on host-plant leaves. Insects,2011, 2, 12-21.

4. Chauvel B. Quel est le statut de l’ambroisieà feuilles d’armoise en Côte-d’Or ? Bour-gogne Nature, 2010, 12, 80-90.

592/2014


Impact of campaigns to control commonragweed on the pollen ProductionC. SINDT1, G. OLIVER1, M. THIBAUDON1, Q. MARTINEZ2, B. CHAUVEL3

1 RNSA (Réseau National de Surveillance Aérobiologique), Brussieu, France - Email: [email protected] Observatoire des ambroisies -Inra, Dijon, France3 Inra -UMR1347 Agroécologie, Dijon, France


The cultivation of Ambrosia artemisiifoliain Piedmont is documented in the Botan-ical Garden of the University of Torino in1772, and this is probably one of the mostancient cultivation of the species in Eu-rope. First data on its naturalization areindicated by specimens of the Herbariumof the University of Torino (HP-TO) dat-ed 1902 and 1910 respectively in Albaand Torino. The present distribution ofthe species has been recorded in a moni-toring campaign carried out from 2006 to2009 and is related to 10 x 10 km2

quadrats based on the UTM (UniversalTransverse Mercator coordinate system)grid (Fig. 1), published in a recent bookon invasive alien species in Piedmont (1).Ragweed is actually occurring in 160quadrats (60%) out of 268. Its frequenceis highest in the quadrants of the Plain, inthe Provinces of Alessandria, Novara,Vercelli, Biella, Asti and Torino and islower in the Southern and in the North-ern part of the region (Provinces of Cu-

neo and Verbano-Cusio- Ossola). More-over, the species is absent in almost all thealpine valleys. In the last years the speciesincreased strongly its distribution, invad-ing not only cities, streets and railways butalso agricultural areas, with a very highfrequency. The increase in the distribution andabundance of the species correspond to anotable increase in the airborne pollenconcentration which is well representedby pollen counts monitored in the city ofTorino from 1984 (3 days with concen-trations from 0.5 or 1 pollen/m3) to 2013(62 days with from 0.5 to 54 pollen/m3).The pollen concentration monitored inthe center of the city often reached valuesof 20-30 pollen/m3 and rarely 50-60pollen/ m3. Concentrations are lower thanthose monitored in other cities of Europeand Northern Italy but the length of rag-weed pollen season significatively in-creased. Mono and polysensitization ofthe allergic patients monitored at “Azien-

da Ospedaliera dell’Ordine Mauriziano”of Torino increased from 3-4% during theyears 1999-2000 to 20-21% in the last 5years. The rapid spread of this invasivealien species, the consequent increase ofits pollen concentration in the city ofTorino and of the percentage of allergicpatients, highlights that its control be-comes mandatory to reduce the impactsof this pest on economy and humanhealth. A regional law on control anderadication of the most important inva-sive alien species, similar to the recent re-gional laws approved in the nearby Lom-bardy and Aosta Valley, is urgently need-ed.

References

1. Bouvet D. (ed.) 2013. Piante esotiche inva-sive in Piemonte. Riconoscimento, dis-tribuzione, impatti. Museo Regionale diScienze Naturali, Torino.

60 G.E.A.


Health impact of exposure to ragweedpollen in FranceM. THIBAUDON, G. OLIVER

RNSA, Brussieu, France - Email: [email protected]


ALK-Abelló is in the initial phase of set-ting up a field trial experiment to investi-gate the link between Short Ragweedpollen density in the fields and specific al-lergenicity of the pollen with abiotic stressfactors such as late summer heat anddrought stress at specific time intervals inthe vegetative and reproductive growthseason. The aim is to investigate if the al-lergen protein content of pollen and abiot-ic stress are linked, as well as otherchanges in pollen that could potentiallyaffect the allergy (1). The field-based ap-proach will aim to provide a direct link be-

tween drought conditions on the field andaerobiological models for airborne pollendensity. The project is enabled by ALK-Abelló’s pollen production facility in Illi-nois, USA (on a latitude similar toNapoli). There detailed field observationof reproductive traits and pollen densitycombined with high resolution multi-lay-er soil moisture monitoring combinedwith direct measurements of plant stresslevels on the individual fields and a state ofthe art determination of the allergy poten-tial of the pollen will provide unique in-sights into the causes of increased pollen

allergenicity. This insight is of particularinterest when viewed thought the lens ofclimate change, where a hotter drier cli-mate could cause a significant increase inboth the pollen allergenicity and airbornedistribution of the pollen (2).

References

1. Hedhly A Environmental and ExperimentalBotany, 2011, 74, 9–16.

2.Shimizu KK, Kudoh H and Kobayashi MJ.Annals of Botany, 2011, 108, 777–787.

612/2014


Drought impact on short ragweedpollen density: a field perspectiveJ.T. DAMKJÆR, J. IHLEMANN

ALK-Abelló A/S, Hørsholm, Denmark - Email: [email protected]


Background

Ambrosia spp. was introduced to Ukraineby a few routes and in different years. Inaccordance for some sources, a Germanpharmacist Krikker grew ragweed in theDnipropetrovsk region as a medicinalplant (the substitute for quinine and asan anthelmintic remedy) in 1914. Rag-weed was found in the Kyiv region in1925. The army of General Denikinbrought Ambrosia with seeds of alfalfa toEastern Ukraine, so this weed wasspread in Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Lu-gansk regions. The next ragweed inter-vention to Ukraine was registered in1946 when the first wheat consignmentwas shipped to USSR from USA.In accordance with the data of Quaran-tine State Inspection of Ukraine the areacontaminated by ragweed in 2013 is 31,5times increased from 1973 (3 523138,442 ha versus 107 600 ha according-ly. Presence of this allergenic weed, Am-brosia artemisiifolia mostly, is currentlynoted in every from 25 Ukrainian re-gions. The Eastern region of Ukraine ismore contaminated with this weed.Government reports the largest area ofA. artemisiifolia in Donetsk (1016796,04ha), Zaporizhzya (838835,22 ha),Mykolayv (813406,3183 ha), Kherson

(288763,88 ha), Kyrovograd (276334,67ha) and Dnipropetrovsk (193721,79 ha)oblasts. Ragweed is usually spread fromsouthern and Eastern parts of Ukrainetoward North-West. The seeds distribu-tion occurs by cars, railway, with sun-flower seeds contaminated by ragweeddue to their transportation from steppeto forest-steppe zone of Ukraine forplanting. Sensitivity of compromisedchildren to Ambrosia pollen was 3% in2000 and it was 10% already in 2009 inthe Western part of Ukraine. However,the Ukrainian west is still characterizedby the minor ragweed areas. While theCentral region of Ukraine is contami-nated by ragweed particularly, the aim ofour study was to estimate the changes inragweed area in Central region ofUkraine for the recent years.

Method

To establish the area contaminated byAmbrosia spp. the data of Ukrainian Phy-tosanitary inspection was used. Pollencollection was done by gravimetric sam-pling for years 1999 and 2000. From2009 to 2013 research used volumetricmethods employing a Burkard trapplaced at a height of 25 meters above the

ground on the roof of a Vinnitsa Med-ical University building. Samples weretaken from March 1 until October 31.

Results

Ambrosia pollination had been static inabundance from 1999 to 2009 in Vinnit-sa, Ukraine, but has increased from 2010to 2011 and now. The greatest ragweedpollen count is seen during the third tenday period of August (up to 760 pollengrains/m3 for the year 2011) and the firstand second ten day period of September.The eradicative measures to prevent thespread of ragweed included the cut ofAmbrosia plants before the floweringseason mostly. Penalty for the house-holdings and farms for ragweed plantsfound on their territory is established aswell. Control of ragweed area includescheck of sunflower seeds contaminationwith seeds of ragweed before planting.Intensive eradication of Ambrosia inVinnitsa region in summer, 2012 led tosignificant (4-5 folds in comparison withyear 2011) decrease of pollen count ofthis type in ambient air of Vinnitsa city.This tendency remained for the year2013 after proper prevention of ragweedflowering in Vinnitsa region.

62 G.E.A.


Ragweed areas and preventive measuresin UkraineV.V. RODINKOVA1, I.I.MOTRUK1, O.O. PALAMARCHUK2

1Vinnitsa National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnitsa, Ukraine - Email: [email protected] Municipal secondary school No 2


Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) pos-sesses all ‘weapons’ of aggressive weedssuch as high ecological tolerance andability of rapid regeneration and coloni-sation which enable them to become thepioneer plant species of secondary suc-cession. As the majority of pollutantscoming from traffic, industrial and agri-cultural activities gets into our environ-

ment, we compared the morphology andvitality of the ragweed pollen grainscoming from different agricultural, in-dustrial areas and ruderalia. In areas exposed to strong pollution mor-phological changes of ragweed pollenwere observed. In pollen samples fromruderalia the average number of deformedpollen was 40 %. Values were significantly

higher in samples coming from industrialand agricultural areas. The quantity of de-formed pollen was correlated to thepollen viability. The prolin concentrationof pollen grains from ruderalia was thelowest. Our results suggest an environ-mental impact on pollen morphology, af-fecting the vitality of pollen grains, whichcan modify allergic symptoms.

632/2014


Morphology and vitality of theragweed pollen grains fromagricultural, industrial and ruderalareasD. M. TÓTH1, G. KOVACSICS-VÁRI1, E. BURJÁN2, Á. BÉNI1

1College of Nyíregyháza, Institute of Environmental, Nyíregyháza, Hungary - Email: [email protected] of Szeged, Institute of Communication in Foreign Languages, Szeged, Hungary


Ragweed is an annual, anemophilousweed producing pollen extremely aller-genic. The genus Ambrosia (A.) includessome species of ragweed. Pollen of rag-weed represents a question of publichealth in several European countrieswhere plants are abundant. In Franceand Hungary 80% of the allergic popu-lation is sensitized to ragweed. In Italymost affected region by ragweed is Lom-bardy where the plant is widely distrib-uted and where its pollen represents amajor problem for human health; in thisarea it now represents the first cause ofpollinosis. In the Parma area, until a fewyears ago, the plant had not been identi-fied as anything other than sporadic. Inour previous report, we described the sit-uation up to 2008, with a significant in-crease in SPI (Seasonal Pollen Index)and in patients with positive SPT (SkinPrick Test) for ragweed pollen, andamong these a significant increase ofasthma. The aim of our study was toconfirm pollen results for subsequent

years until today and detect the presenceof ragweed plants sources on the territo-ry. Parma lies in the Po valley, to theSouth of the Po River. The aerobiologi-cal surveillance was carried out accord-ing to the methods of the Italian Associ-ation of Aerobiology. We checked aero-biological data regarding start dates, enddates, duration of pollination, peakdates, peak values and SPI for Ambrosiapollen according to Jäger et al. 1996. InParma we had season start on Aug 7th,season end on Sep 21th, season duration46 days, day of peak Aug 30th, peak(p/m3) 36, SPI 245 grains, median calcu-lated during last 18 years. We found anincreased, not significant, trend for SPI(y=29.741x+9.961, R²=0.495), peak val-ue (y= 3.205x+12.549, R²=0.286) and adecreased trend for duration (y=-0.632x+ 57.621, R²= 0.028). In the last twoyears, we found a decrease in ragweedpollen (-57.75% 2012 vs 2011, -53.91%2013 vs 2011). In Parma, although it hasbeen observed in the neighboring

Province of Piacenza, there is currentlyno evidence of the presence of Ophraellacommuna, which feeds on ragweed leavesand which has been probably associatedto a decrease in the concentration of rag-weed pollen in Lombardy during 2013.The survey work carried out on our ter-ritory has identified numerous sitesspreading A. artemisiifolia L. (21), A.coronopifolia Torr. & A. Gray (15) and A.trifida L. (3). On the basis of these re-sults and considering our previous resultswe expect a rapid increase of allergy toragweed related to the Ambrosia spreadon our territory. The case of Lombardy iscautionary: almost nothing was done de-spite numerous warnings to fight rag-weed at an early stage of the invasion. Inour area the situation is tracing whathappened in Lombardy during the earlyyears of the spread of the plant. The con-sequence of the lack of action taken bythe authorities may be very important interms of public health and health costs inour territory.

64 G.E.A.


Ragweed plants and pollen spreading inparma, northern ItalyR. ALBERTINI1,2, M. UGOLOTTI3, L. GHILLANI4, M. ADORNI5, P. VITALI3, C. PASQUARELLA6

1 Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Parma, Italy - Email: [email protected] Medical Immunology Unit, University Hospital of Parma, Italy3 Hospital Hygiene Unit, University Hospital of Parma, Italy4 People’s University of Parma, Italy5 Freelance Biologist, Parma, Italy6 Department of Biomedical, Biotechnological and Translational Sciences, University of Parma, Italy


Five species of ragweed are present inItaly: Ambrosia maritima L.,A.artemisiifolia L., A.tenuifolia Sprengel,A. psilostachya D.C. (A. coronopifolia Torr.& A. Gray), A. trifida L. In the 80’s, ragweed pollen was recordedonly in northern regions such as Lom-bardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna.The last ragweed pollen map, dated2011, showed that this pollen was alsodetected in Central and Southern Italy.Nevertheless, values recorded in theseregions were significantly lower and spo-radically detected than those recorded inthe northern regions. Moreover, withinthe Po Valley, some areas of Lombardy(North-Western Milan and SouthernVarese areas) represented the area mostpolluted by ragweed in Italy and one ofthe most in Europe, reaching a SeasonalPollen Index (SPI) of 6,915 and a peak

of 1,001 p/m3, meanwhile the rest of thePo Valley area presented lower values(average SPI of 3,209, varying from aminimum of 150). A first assessment ofthe ragweed pollen trend (Cox-Stuarttest; p<0.05 significant), showed thatfrom 2001 to 2012, an evident, but notstatistical significant increase in the SPIhas been observed in the Po Valley,whilst no trend has been observed in theAlps.The aim of our survey is to update thediffusion and trend of ragweed pollen inItaly.The following table shows the pollenseason parameters of 2013 for each area,calculated according to Jäger, the SPIand the peak values.With regards to the distribution of zonespresenting different levels of ragweedpollen concentration along the peninsu-

la, the situation of 2013 was similar to2011. Meanwhile the results showed anoverall decrease in the SPI, more promi-nent in Northern Italy, even if this find-ing doesn’t influence the long-periodtrends from 2001, which seems to be in-creasing in the Po Valley (though nonstatistical significant; p=0.344) and ab-sent in the Alps. Nevertheless, a short-time analysis showed a wide reduction inthe SPI of 2013 compared to 2012. Aswell as the different meteorological pa-rameters to explain this decrease, couldbe due to the presence of Ophraella com-muna (an oligophagous leaf beetle), de-tected during the summer of 2013 inNorthern Italy. But, further investigationis needed to evaluate the beetle’s impacton ragweed pollen production and otherpossible causes, such as meteorologicaland environmental factors

652/2014


Diffusion and trend of ragweed pollenin ItalyM. BONINI, A. PINI, A. TRAVAGLINI, M. UGOLOTTI, S. VOLTOLINI, M. ZANCA, R. ALBERTINI

Italian Monitoring Network in Aerobiology (R.I.M.A.®) of the Italian Association of Aerobiology (A.I.A.) - Email: [email protected]

Year 2013 Season start Season end Season duration (days) Day of peak Peak (p/m3) SPI

Alps and Pre-Alps 22-Aug 21-Sept 31 4-Sept 32 369Po valley 12-Aug 23-Sept 43 3-Sept 43 643North Tyrrhenian* 10-Aug 18-Sept 39 2-Sept 7 49North Adriatic 13-Aug 24-Sept 43 15-Aug 12 115Central Tyrrhenian * 1-Aug 28-Sept 58 2-Sept 3 26Central Adriatic * 21-July 25-Sept 66 21-Aug 2 18South Adriatic-Puglia * 10-Aug 19-Sept 40 1-Sept 16 128Sicily-South Tyrrhenian* 24-Sept 25-Sept 2 24-Sept 1 1

* Sporadic observations

Tab. 1 -


Extreme high and low temperatures andprecipitation totals may have importanteffect on daily and annual pollen concen-trations. The aim of this study was to an-alyze the pollen seasons of ragweed (Am-brosia) in relationship with the meteoro-logical data and to propose a statistical ap-proach to forecasting the cumulative con-centrations of Ambrosia, in order to pro-vide early information to allergists and al-lergic people. For this study the station ofNovara (Italy) was selected because thehighest concentrations of the whole re-gion are recorded in this area. We used theairborne pollen data from 2002 to 2012and meteorological data for the same peri-od (average, maximal and minimal airtemperature, cumulative rainfall, differ-ence between maximal and minimal tem-perature, growing degree-day). The resultsshowed that the concentrations of rag-weed are strongly increasing in the moni-toring station of Novara (Figure 1). Alsothe meteorological variables suggested acertain correlation with the concentrationof pollen. In particular, in the forecastingmodel tested, the meteorological factors

registered in the period before the start ofthe season seem to influence the amountof Ambrosia of imminent pollen season.

References

1. Laaidi M, Thibaudon M, Besancenot JP.Two statistical approaches to forecasting thestart and duration of the pollen season ofAmbrosia in the area of Lyon (France). Int J

Biometeorol, 2003, 48:65-73.2. Recio M, Docampo S, García-Sánchez J,

Trigo MM, Melgar M, Cabezudo B. Influ-ence of temperature, rainfall and windtrends on grass pollination in Malaga (west-ern Mediterranean coast). Agr Forest Mete-orol, 2010, 150:931-940.

3. Stefanic E, Kovacevic V, Lazanin Z. Air-borne ragweed pollen concentration innorth-eastern Croatia and its relationshipwith meteorological parameters. Ann AgricEnviron Med, 2005,12(1):75-9.

66 G.E.A.


The impact of meteorological variableson ragweed: data analysis and proposalof a forecasting model for the areawith high pollinic concentrations inpiedmont (Italy)P. CARNÀ, C. IVALDI, M. CALCIATI

ARPA Piemonte, Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale - Turin, Italy - Email: [email protected] - [email protected]

Fig. 1 -


The problem of the Ambrosia artemisiifo-lia occurrence in Poland is still open. Thepermanent pollen monitoring has beenperformed over 20 years and the poten-tial impact of A. artemisiifolia on cropswas assessed, but the predicted directionof plant migration into Poland and theproblem of allergy to ragweed is not ful-ly confirmed. This report gives the pres-ent state of knowledge of the ragweedproblem in Krakow in relation to the aer-obiological data obtained in PAN cen-tres, and to some medical aspects. Nowa-days, on several sites in Poland A.artemisiifolia has been settled for a dozenor so years generally not demonstratingthe tendency to spread beyond these sites(the surroundings of Przemy�l andLublin, Kraków, Czarna Tarnowska),however in a few regions with the dis-tinct tendency of colonizing of new sites(e.g. the Silesia region). In spite of notfavourable climatic conditions, consider-ing the tendency of temperature rising,the risk of fully settlement of A. artemisi-ifolia in the region of the Silesia Upland

and Lubelszczyzna is possible. In spite ofnot scattered distribution of Ambrosiaplants, its pollen is observed from year toyear in many regions of Poland. The re-sults of the regional ragweed pollen mon-itoring in Poland in 1991-2012 pointedout that the highest pollen concentra-tions were noted in Lublin (daily countsexceeded 300 PG/m3, annual total ex-ceeded 1000 PG/m3), while the lowest inKraków (daily counts up to 80 PG/m3,annual total up to 200 PG/m3). The dis-tinct rising trend of annual total pollenconcentration was not observed in thestudied years, while the weak trend to-wards earlier pollen seasons was observedin Sosnowiec. It was indicated that rag-weed pollen registered in Poland origi-nated partially from the Pannonian Plain(southern path) or from Ukraine (easternpath). The direction of the pollen influxfrom Ukraine, Slovakia and the CzechRepublic needs to be confirmed includ-ing data from these regions. The poten-tial threat of ragweed allergens to humanhealth is hard to estimate. Regarding the

information from other allergologicalcentres in Poland, the percentage of pa-tients sensitive to Ambrosia allergensranges from several to about 50%. Theresults obtained in the 90ties of the 20thcentury in Krakow pointed out the readi-ness of population to the immunologicalresponse to ragweed allergens. Nowa-days, in a group of 90 patients sufferingfrom allergic rhinitis caused by pollen al-lergens, the sensitization to ragweed wasconfirmed in 16 patients on the basis ofthe positive SPT. Only in 5 of the rag-weed sensitized patients, the oral allergysymptoms were manifested. The relevantknowledge on the threat of ragweed inPoland and the pathomechanism of hu-man population sensitivity needs to beimproved to make the evident contribu-tion in the integrated activities on A.artemisiifolia control in Europe.

References

1. Tokarska B, Bzdęga K, Koszela K, Żabińska I,Krzuś B, Sajan M, Sendek A. Biodiversity

672/2014


The problem of ragweed pollen inkrakow against a background of otherpolish regions and some allergologicalaspects D. MYSZKOWSKA1, E. CZARNOBILSKA1, B. TOKARSKA-GUZIK2, I. KASPRZYK3, K. LESKIEWICZ4, PAN TEAM5

1Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland - Email: [email protected] of Silesia, Katowice, Poland3University of Rzeszow, Rzeszow, Poland; 4Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; 5Polish Aerobiological Network (D. Myszkowska, D. St�palska, I. Kasprzyk, K. Borycka, E. Weryszko-Chmielewska, K. Piotrowska, B. Majkowska-Wojciechowska, K. Chłopek, Ł. Grewling, M. Nowak, M. Puc, M. Malkiewicz)


In order to explore the aerobiologicalparticles present at high altitude fiveyears of measurements were carried outat the monitoring station housed in theAlpine Botanical Garden of Campo Im-peratore. The Botanical Garden is locat-ed in the Gran Sasso massif (in the GranSasso Monti della Laga National Park)at 2117 m a.s.l. and it accommodates themain peculiar species of the regionalmountainous flora. At present there aresome over 300 autochthonous plantspecies cultivated in the Garden, withparticular attention being paid to thosethat are rare and vulnerable includingnumerous endemic species and glacialrelicts (1). The vascular flora of the GranSasso has 2364 species accounting for72.3% of the flora of Abruzzo region(2).The aerobiological monitoring wasconducted only in summer months dueto severe weather condition that avoidthe access to the garden during the restof the year. The natural vegetation of theGran Sasso area is composed of varioustypes of habitats such as meadows, cliffs,scree and rocks. The analysis of the per-

centage of airborne pollens shows thatmost of the grains belong to the familiesof Urticaceae (44% in the year 2012),Asteraceae (23% in the year 2009),Gramineae (28% in the year 2012) werealso identified pollen of Euphorbiaceae,Polygonaceae, Pinaceae, Umbelliferae,Corylaceae and Fagaceae (Castanea sati-va). As far as the fungal spores was de-tected the presence of Alternaria, Cla-dosporium, Epicoccum, Helminthosporium,Pleospora, Polythrincium, Stemphyliumand Torula, the most prevalent are Al-ternaria and Cladosporium. In Abruzzoregion the presence of Ambrosiapsilostachya is certain in the sandy beach-es of Martinsicuro (Te) while in Marcheregion is present Ambrosia artemisiifoliaat various location (between Pesaro andFalconara), along the river Candigliano(at Furlo) and along the river Metauro(at Fossombrone) (3). During the sum-mer season of the years 2010-2013 werecaptured and identified pollen compati-ble with Ambrosia. In particular, wereidentified respectively: 6 pollens (August2010), 36 pollens (August / September

2011); 37 pollens (August / September2012); 36 pollens (August / September2013). The study presented here, carriedout in collaboration with the Center ofExcellence CETEMPS, aims to identifythe origin of the pollens detected at theBotanical Garden of Campo Imperatoreusing the back-trajectories analysis.These observations and analysis allow usto identify the possibility of transport athigh altitude of pollens produced inCentral European area and the BalkanPeninsula.

References

1. Tammaro F. Il paesaggio vegetaled’Abruzzo, Cogecstre edizioni, 1998, 11:315 – 402.

2. Conti F, Abbate G, Alessandrini A, BlasiC.. An annotated checklist of the Italianvascular flora. Rome Palombi Editori. 2005,52.

3. Celesti Crapow L., Pretto F., Carli E., BlasiC. Flora vascolare alloctona ed invasiva delleregioni d’Italia, 2010 90-115.

68 G.E.A.


Ambrosia pollen at high altitude(Campo Imperatore-Gran Sasso d’Italia)L. PACE1, M. CASILLI1, L. BOCCACCI1, P. DI CARLO2

1 Department of Life, Health & Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila - Email: [email protected] 2 CETEMPS-Department of.Physical and chemical sciences,University of L’Aquila


A. artemisiifolia L. and A. psilostachyaDC are the most common species of thegenus Ambrosia in Poland. In turn,A. artemisiifolia L., A. trifida L., and A.aptera DC are the most prevalent Am-brosia species in Ukraine. The aim of thestudy was to compare the concentrationof Ambrosia pollen in the air of Lublinand Lviv and to assess the length of thepollen seasons. The investigations inLublin were carried out using the volu-metric method. In Lviv, the gravimetricmethod was employed and, in order tocompare the data obtained with the dif-ferent methods, the gravimetric methodresults were converted in accordancewith the recommendations of Basset etal. (1978). The distance between Lublinand Lviv is ca. 200 km. In the years2011 and 2012, the Ambrosia pollen sea-son determined with the 98% methodstarted in Lviv in the first week of Julyand in 2013 - on July 18. In Lublin, theonset of the pollen season was recordeda month later during the first two yearsand in 2013 - 6 days later ( July 24) thanin Lviv. The end of the Ambrosia pollen

season in 2011 and 2012 was noted inthe second half of October in bothcities, although in Lublin 6 days laterthan in Lviv. In turn, the pollen seasonin 2013 was considerably shorter in bothcities and persisted until the thirddecade of September. In 2011 and 2012,the sum of daily values of pollen grainsduring the seasons were higher inLublin (216 and 125 pollen grains) thanin Lviv (103 and 111 pollen grains); incontrast, in 2013 a reverse relationshipwas observed: substantially higher quan-tities of pollen were recorded in Lviv (64pollen grains) than in Lublin (26 pollengrains). Maximum pollen concentra-tions in Lublin and Lviv were achievedin the same periods: 27.08 (2011), 12.09(2012), and 20.08 (2013). In 2011 and2012, the values of maximum concen-trations were 3-fold higher in Lublin(38 and 23 P/m3) than in Lviv (10 and 7P/m3), whereas in 2013 the values re-ported from Lviv were nearly two-foldhigher (9 P/m3) than in Lublin (5 P/m3).Importantly, no Ambrosia localities werefound in Lublin and its surroundings,

whereas the plant has numerous locali-ties in Lviv.

Conclusions

More considerable amounts of pollengrains were recorded in Lublin than inLviv. It may be connected with using ofdifferent research methods. The annual sums of Ambrosia pollen grainsnoted in Lublin during the 3 years exhibit-ed high variation (216, 125, 26 pollengrains), which may be related to the long-distance pollen transport dependent on thechanging meteorological conditions.The annual sums of Ambrosia pollen grainsrecorded in Lviv (103, 111, 64 pollengrains) were more similar than in Lublin,which may be associated with the occur-rence of plants of this taxon in the nativevegetation.Considerable differences in the length ofthe Ambrosia pollen seasons between the3 investigation years were noted in bothLublin and Lviv. This trend was similar inboth cities.

692/2014


Comparison of ambrosia pollen seasonsin the air of Lublin (Poland) and Lviv(Ukraine) in 2011-2013A. SULBORSKA1, E. WERYSZKO-CHMIELEWSKA1, K. PIOTROWSKA-WERYSZKO2, K. VOLOSHCHUK3, N. KALINOVYCH3, N. VOROBETS4

1Department of Botany, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 15, 20-950 Lublin, Poland - Email: [email protected] of General Ecology, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 15, 20-950 Lublin, Poland3Department of Botany, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv4Hrushevsky St., Lviv 79005, Ukraine, 4Danylo Halytsky Lviv National University, 79010 Lviv, Ukraine


Three species from the genus Ambrosiahave been reported from Poland, i.e.A. artemisiifolia L., A. psilostachya DC.,and A. trifida L. The first species men-tioned has a status of an invasive plant inPoland.A. artemisiifolia occurs in many lo-calities dispersed in different parts of thecountry, with a majority thereof in thesouth-western part of Poland. Monitoringof Ambrosia pollen grains was performedin Lublin (central-eastern Poland) withthe volumetric method in 2001-2013. ALanzoni VPPS 2000 spore trap was locat-ed on a building roof (18 m) in the citycentre. Ambrosia pollen seasons wererecorded; they began in the first decade ofAugust and ended in the third decade ofOctober. The maximum concentrations of

pollen grains were recorded at variousdates between August 20 and September12. The values of the highest diurnalpollen concentrations oscillated between 5and 320 P/m3/24 h. The annual pollen in-dex (API) ranged from 27 to 1200 grains.Trend line analysis performed based onthe investigations conducted in Lublin re-vealed a downward tendency in both themaximum diurnal concentration of pollenof this taxon and the annual sums ofpollen grains.In the present study, we show the numberof days characterised by an Ambrosia pollenconcentration exceeding the threshold val-ue, at which allergy symptoms appear insusceptible individuals (5 P/m3/24 h). In2001-2013, there were 1-16 days on which

the threshold value for the concentrationof pollen of the taxon was exceeded. Spear-man’s correlation coefficients between theconcentration of Ambrosia pollen and me-teorological conditions (temperature, pre-cipitation, humidity, wind speed) revealeda significant correlation solely with tem-perature. In turn, intradiurnal assessmentof pollen concentrations shows that thelargest quantities of Ambrosia pollen grainspersisted in the atmosphere of Lublin indifferent hours of the day, which may im-ply long-distance transport of pollen ofthis taxon. This corresponds with the re-sults of phytosociological investigations,according to which there are no localitiesof Ambrosia in the Lublin region (up to100 km).

70 G.E.A.


Dynamics of ragweed (ambrosia spp.)pollen seasons in the conditions ofcentral-eastern Poland E. WERYSZKO-CHMIELEWSKA1, A. SULBORSKA1, K. PIOTROWSKA-WERYSZKO2

1Department of Botany, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 15, 20-950 Lublin, Poland - Email: [email protected] of General Ecology, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 15, 20-950 Lublin, Poland


In this research we wanted to investigatethe effects of weather factors on concen-tration of ragweed pollen in the air dur-ing its pollination season.

Method

Pollen was recorded in Busto Arsiziowith a volumetric pollen trap (VPPS2000 Lanzoni) and pollen counts wereobtained according to the Italian Asso-ciation of Aerobiology (AIA) criteria.Metereological data was provided fromboth Centro Geofisico Prealpino andboth Malpensa airport archive.

Results

The research has been carried out on the

data collected over ten years of aerobio-logical sampling 2003-2012 by the Al-lergology Department of Busto ArsizioHospital (Varese – Italia). The weatherparameters taken into account were av-erage, minimum and maximum temper-ature, relative humidity, precipitation,storm and strong wind. The ragweedflowering in the area starts in the firstdecade of August and continued untilthe first decade of October. The pollina-tion peak is in our Country between deAugust last days from the first Sep-tember 10 days. The highest pollencounts have been recorded in the years2009, 2011 and 2003, when the temper-ature in the month of August was medi-um-high, together with long periods ofgood weather. The flowering started orincreased after rainy period associatedwith temperature increase. The lowest

pollen counts occurred in 2005 and co-incide with the lowest average tempera-ture in August during the period consid-ered (21°C). The relative humidity inthe flowering ragweed time varies from20-100% (from last July days to the firstOctober 15 days).

Conclusion

Using a multi-linear regression over 10years of pollen data we have obtained amodel statically significant (R²=74%,F<0,05) which shows that the pollina-tion depend to mean air temperatureand millimeters of rain. The weatherfactors have consequences on the rag-weed flowering and on total annualPollen Index ragweed pollen.

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Effects of weather factors onconcentration of ragweed pollen inBusto Arsizio area (Lombardia)V. ORTOLANI, D. BERRA, E. CHIODINI, M. GRANCONATO

U.O. Pneumology and Allergology, Busto Arsizio Hospital - Email: [email protected]


In Italy, Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. is list-ed among the plant species of allergenicimportance. Five species from the genusAmbrosia are reported for Italy, variouslydistributed in the territory (1, 2). Theaim of aerobiological monitoring is toidentify with a reasonable certainty themajority of pollen and spores capturedby a volumetric sampler. The identifica-tion is carried on by optical microscopy(OM), and studying the morphologicalcharacteristics of the grains. The pollengrains of Ambrosia are typically tricolpo-rate, spheroidal or slightly oblate. Allspecies have short echines, conical inshape; the shots are very short, almostcircular (3). The purpose of this prelimi-nary study is to verify the distinctivecharacteristics in the OM of the pollengrains of the five different species of Am-brosia genus present in Italy. Pollen ofthe different species was collected fromplants in open fields or from exiccata pre-served in the herbarium of the Museum

of Natural History, University of Flo-rence. The slides were prepared accord-ing to standardized methodologies (4,5); each of them was photographed and50 grains of each species were measuredby using the OM model Zeiss LAB A1equipped with a camera Axio Cam ICc5.The pictures were taken at 400x magni-fication. The pictures were analyzedwith the program Rovellometro, that al-lows digital measurement of objects; thefollowing parameters were measured:polar diameter, equatorial diameter,width of the echines, height of theechines, width of the colpi, height of thecolpi. The average of the considered pa-rameters and standard deviations foreach of the 5 species were: polar diame-ter: 19.74±1.62 µm, equatorial diameter:19.85±1.82 µm, width of the echine:2.14±0.26 µm, height of the echine:0.73±0.07 µm, width of the colpi:3.46±0.33 µm, height of the colpi:2.26±0.16 µm. Moreover, for the param-

eters polar and equatorial diameter,width and height of the echine, one-wayANOVA test was applied. No signifi-cant differences, with p >0.05 were ob-served. All these different species con-tribute to airborne pollen concentrationsin Italy and their distinction is very dif-ficult to OM.

References

1. Pignatti S., Flora d’Italia, 1982.2. Conti F., Abbate G., Alessandrini A., Blasi

C., An annoted checklist of Italian vascularflora, 2005

3. Robbins, R.R., Dickinson, D.B. andRhodes, Morphometric analysis of fourspecies of Ambrosia (Compositae). Ameri-can J. Botany, 1979, 66, 538-545.

4. Norma UNI 11108:2004, Qualità dell’aria.Metodo di campionamento e Conteggio deigranuli pollinici e delle spore fungineaerodisperse, 2004.

5. Travaglini, A., Albertini, R., Zieger, E.Manuale di gestione e qualità dellaR.I.M.A.®, 2009.

72 G.E.A.


Observations on ambrosia pollenmorphologyA. TRAVAGLINI, C. CAPPELLO, M.A. BRIGHETTI

Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy - Email: [email protected]


The alien plant Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.is one of the main allergenic species inEurope, particularly in Northern Italy-where it has become the second cause ofrespiratory allergy in the last 2 decades(1). Rgweed causes great concern be-cause it is one of the most invasivespecies in Europe and produces largeamounts of pollen containing noxious al-lergens. The major allergen of ragweedpollen is Amb a 1, a protein belonging tothe family of pectate lyase and showingmany genetic isoforms (Amb a 1.1, Amba 1.2, Amb a 1.3, Amb a 1.4, Amb a 1.5)(2). The expression and the allergenicpotential of these different Amb a 1 iso-forms in ragweed population and in sin-gle plants are currently unknown.The aims of this research are: • to determine the inter and intra-popu-

lation expression variability of Amb a1 isoforms and their immunologicalreactivity

• to identify genetic and environmentalfactors responsible for the possible dif-ferent expression of the isoforms.

To this end, seeds from 15 different popu-lations (5 from Canada, 5 from France and5 from Italy) were collected and used toobtain ragweed plants.First, plants were characterized by apply-ing molecular markers (SSR), in order toassess the intra and inter population ge-netic variability. The analysis of 20 plantsper population confirmed the previousresults obtained in French and Americanpopulations (3) showing high and low in-tra- and inter-ragweed population vari-ability, respectively. On the basis of ourresults, it is likely that the origin of Italianragweed populations is the Canadian areaof Quebec the same area from whichFrench ragweed originated. In order tocollect pollen grains, at least five plantsper population (in total 90 plants) wereleft to flower in controlled condition in-

side a greenhouse. Pollen samples werecollected from each individual and arecurrently used to study the expression andthe immunological reactivity of the Amba 1 isoforms. The preliminary results willbe reported and discussed during themeeting.

References

1. Asero R. et al., 2002: Birch and ragweedpollinosis north of Milan: a model to inves-tigate the effects of exposure to “new” air-borne allergens. Allergy 57, 1063- 1066.

2. Genton B.J. et al., 2005: Isolation of fivepolymorphic microsatellite loci, using anenrichment protocol, in the invasive weedAmbrosia artemisiifolia (Asteraceae). Molec-ular Ecology Notes, 5, 381–383.

3. Gaudeul M. et al., 2011: Nuclear andChloroplast Microsatellites Show MultipleIntroductions in the Worldwide InvasionHistory of Common Ragweed, Ambrosiaartemisiifolia. PLOSONE 6 (3), 1-15.

732/2014


Study of intra and inter populationgenetic variability of common ragweedin relation to amb a 1 isoforms andtheir allergenicityS. CIAPPETTA1, A. GHIANI1, R. GENTILI1, M. BONINI2, R. ASERO3, S. CITTERIO1

1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy - Email: [email protected] Health Authority Milan 1, Italy.3Allergy Department, San Carlo Hospital, Paderno Dugnano (MI), Italy.


Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed)is an invasive neophyte from NorthAmerica, which is now spreadingthroughout Europe. This annual herb pro-duces huge amounts of pollen grains thathave a very high allergenic potential andare known as the prime cause of allergicdiseases in the US. Climate change and airpollution will affect the allergenic poten-tial of pollen, either by changes of thepollen season or the pollen amount (1-3),by a changed surface exine or by directlyincreasing the transcripts and the expres-sion of allergenic proteins, and interac-tions with biologically important ligands,e.g., flavonoids. We carried out a systemsbiology approach of ragweed pollen uponelevated O3/CO2/NO2 and drought stresstowards a better understanding of molec-ular mechanisms in ragweed pollen under

global change scenarios. Fourier transforminfrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicatedchanges of pollen cell wall componentsupon O3-fumigation (4). Upon elevatedCO2 plus drought stress conditions it hasbeen shown by HPLC that individualflavonoid metabolites were increased.Transcriptomic analyses showed changesin allergen-encoding transcripts upon ele-vated O3/CO2 and drought stress. NO2-treatment resulted in increased amounts ofallergenic proteins. In addition, nitrosyla-tion of Amb a isoforms was observed thatmay also influence the allergenic potential.Treatment of mice B cells with pollen-ex-tracts from CO2-fumigated and/ordrought stressed plants augmented theIgE enhancing effect, indicating an im-pact on allergic diseases. The data high-light an influence of climate change on the

transcript and protein level of pollen aller-gens and support the idea of a direct influ-ence of air pollution on allergens. In addi-tion, the large-scale sequencing con-tributes to the identification of stress-re-lated transcripts in mature pollen (4).

References

1. Rogers CA, Wayne PM, Macklin EA, et al.Environmental Health Perspectives, 2006,114, 865-869.

2. Ziska L, Knowlton K, Rogers C, et al. Pro-ceedings of the National Academy of Sci-ences, 2011, 108, 4248-4251.

3. Ziska LH, Epstein PR and Rogers CA.Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies forGlobal Change, 2008, 13, 607-613.

4. Kanter U, Heller W, Durner J, et al. PLoSONE, 2013, 8, e61518.

74 G.E.A.


Common ragweed (Ambrosiaartemisiifolia): systems biology tounderstand the reaction of theallergenic pollen to air pollutions andclimate changeU. FRANK1,4, A.E.-KELISH1, F. ZHAO1, W. HELLER1, P. BRAUN2, J. DURNER1, J. B. WINKLER1, M. ENGEL1, M. PFEIFER1,C. VON TÖRNE1, S.M. HAUCK1, S. ÖDER3,4, H. BEHRENDT3,4, C. TRAIDL-HOFFMANN3,4, D. ERNST1,4

1Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health, Munich, Germany - Email: [email protected] of Applied Sciences Munich, Munich, Germany3ZAUM – Center for Allergy & Environment, Munich, Germany4CK-CARE, Christine Kühne – Center for Allergy Research & Education


A study on patients referred to Allergolo-gy Department of Busto Arsizio Hospitalbetween 1986 and 1990 showed that in1986, 22,8% of skin positive patients hadsensitivity to Ragweed, in 1987 28,1 %, in1988 28,6% in 1989 27,5% and in 199039,9%. A further study (1995) showedthat in 1994 the percentage of patientssensitive to Ragweed had reached 47,9%.In the same way, since 1988, year of thebeginning of the daily pollen sampling,we observed a concentration increase ofRagweed pollen in atmosphere from Au-gust to September. We started from a pickof 125 pollens/m3 air in 1988 and we ar-rived, with annual alternations related toclimatic conditions, to 672 pollens/m3 airin 1998 and 780 in 2009. A further reviewof the case study has been made between1998 and 2002 on approximately 2000Allergology patients. 71% of skin positivepatients turned out Ragweed sensitive, inmost cases in combination with others

pollens. Finally we considered 2151 pa-tients who went to Busto Arsizio Aller-gology, between 2008 and 2012, to un-dergo SPT. 1558 of them (72%) resultedpositive to inhalant allergens and 1189(76%) had been positive for Ragweed.801 patients (in this last 1189 group weare now considering) are symptomatic inthe flowering season and 68 (8,5%) ofthem result monosensitive. Regardingsymptoms, patients mainly show rhinitis(64,3%). Asthma associated with rhinitisis present in 31,8% of cases. The asthmaas a single symptom in 3,1% and con-junctivitis (as a single symptom) in 0,6%.Conclusions: comparison of works carriedout throughout a period of almost 30years in Busto Arsizio Allergology De-partment showed a significant and grow-ing sensitization of Ragweed pollen mov-ing from 22,8% in 1986 to 71% in the pe-riod 1998-2002. In the last decade wehave seen a much slower growth of sensi-

tization (71-76%), even though thepollen concentration in the consideredyears had a similar trend as previous years.This evolution can be explained consider-ing that at the beginning of 2000’s wereached a stabilization of local peoplesensitization. The slight increase in rag-weed-positive patients in these recentyears can be explained by the sensitizationof people migrant from country withoutRagweed.

References

1. P.L. Pozzi, D. Berra, E. Guffanti, E. Nicol-in, A. Scorti, P. Zanon – Allergia ad am-brosia: revisione della casistica dal 1986 al1990.

2. P.L. Pozzi, D. Berra, R. Figini, E. Chiodini,P. Zanon – Ragweedas cause of asthma. InECACI ’95.

3. P. Zanon – Impatto clinico dell’allergia al-l’ambrosia, 2002.

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Ragweed in Busto Arsizio: since 1986 todateP.L. POZZI, D. BERRA, P. ZANON, E. CHIODINI, V. ORTOLANI

U.O. Pneumology and Allergology, Busto Arsizio Hospital - Email: [email protected]


Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifoliavar. elatior) has two common Romaniannames: floarea pustei and iarba parloagelor.The Romanian Plain is located in southpart of the country and has a temperatecontinental climate, with local submediter-anean, semi-arid and humid subtropicalinfluences. In Southern Romania, ragweedwas first identified in 1908 at Orsova (1,2), a Danube river port city with shipyardsince 1890. Years later this invasive weedwas reported in Oltenia (3), Muntenia (4)and Dobrogea (5). The presence of rag-weed is indicated recently in all regions andit seems more extensively spreading to-wards south and centre of the country, thelast reports coming from Baragan andSouthern Moldova (6). Long-distancetransport of ragweed pollen from the Pan-nonian Plain may be discussed as a sourceof this weed pollen in the Balkan Peninsu-la (7, 8), but this seems not to induce newsensitizations in the short term (9) and theCarpathian Mountains separate this re-

gion of Hungary from the RomanianPlain. Recent local studies (10, 11) suggestthat sensitization to common ragweedpollen is significant in patients from theRomanian Plain presenting allergicrhinoconjunctivitis with or without asthmasymptoms. Sensitization to weeds pollen isimportant in almost a quarter of patientswith respiratory allergy, the rate of sensiti-zation to ragweed pollen being similarcompared with mugwort pollen (15%).The vast majority of patients with allergicrhinononjuctivitis symptoms from end ofJuly-August to September-mid Octoberhave positive skin prick tests to Ambrosiaand/or Artemisia pollen extract, sometimesraising the issue of cross-reactivity orcosensitization (12, 13).

References

1. Prodan I. Cluj-Napoca: Edit. Cartea Ro-maneasca, 1939, II, 1278.

2. Javorka S, Soo R. Akademiai Kiado, 1951,I+II, 1120.

3. Cartu D, Cartu M. Stud Com Muz St NatBacau, 1972, 5, 113-118.

4. Negrean G. Comun Refer Muz Sti NatPloiesti, 1972, 77-80.

5. Vitalariu Gh. Abstract of PhD Thesis.Univ Cluj, 1976.

6. Hodisan N, Morar G. Bul Univ St Agric siMed Vet, Cluj-Napoca, 2005, 61, 228-230.

7. Sikoparija B, Smith M, Skjoth CA, et al.Int J Biometeorology, 2009, 53, 263-272.

8. Nikolov G, Hrsitova-Saova M, MichovaA, et al. Central European J Med, 2010, 5,565-568.

9. Cecchi L, Testi S, Campii P, et al. Aerobi-ologia, 2010, 26, 351-352.

10. Popescu FD, Tudose AM. Romanian Jour-nal of Rhinology, 2011, 1, 26-30.

11. Popescu FD, Tudose AM, Gheonea C.Medimond Int Proceedings. Bologna,2012, 55-58.

12. Asero R, Wopfner N, Gruber P, et al. ClinExp Allergy, 2006, 36, 658-665.

13. Canis M, Becker S, Groger M, et al. Am JRhinol Allergy, 2012, 26, 31-35.

76 G.E.A.


Common ragweed in the romanian plain: history of plant identification andactual sensitization prevalence inallergic rhinoconjunctivitisF.-D. POPESCU

“Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Department of Allergology, Bucharest, Romania - Email: [email protected]


Introduction

Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisifolia) has beenexpanding in many European countriesduring the second half of the 20th century.The aim of this study is to analyse the de-velopment of the Ambrosia sensitizationand its clinical symptoms in more than 20years in Legnano.

Materials and methods

The study population consisted in an av-erage of 1100 adult patients per year inthe period between 1989 and 2012. Thesensitization of patients to Ambrosiaand other aeroallergens was tested byskin prick test. The patients have beeninterviewed about clinical symptoms andthe time of their appearance.

Results

The sensitization rate to Ambrosia in-creased from 24% to over 70% amongthe patients who resulted positive to theskin prick test. The percentage of posi-tive patients with respiratory symptomsin late summer markedly increased in the

period between 1989 and 2004, andreached a plateau from 2004 to 2012.The appearance of the Ambrosia sensiti-zation has increased in patients olderthan 50 years.

Conclusions

Ambrosia allergy is very frequent in thearea of Legnano, with a constant in-crease of the sensitization rates in thelast 15 years, and a higher number ofpeople with asthma symptoms. Further-more, elderly people too can develop al-lergic sensitization to Ambrosia.

References

1. Rybnicek O., Jager S. Ambrosia (ragweed) inEurope. ACI International.2001; 13:60-6.

2. Dechamp C., Le Gal M., Deviller P.Prevalence of ragweed hayfever in thesouth and east of greater Lyon region in1993. Allerg. Immunol. 1995; 27:320-5.

3. Thibaudon M., Lachasse C., Finet F. Rag-weed in France and in the Rhone Alpesregion. Eur Ann Allergy Clin Immunol.2003;35:87-91.

4. Corsico R., Falagiani P., Ariano R.An epi-demiological survey on the importance ofsome emerging pollens in Italy. J Invest

Allergol Clin Immunol. 2000;10:155-61.5. Bottero P., Venegoni E., Riccio G., Vignati

G., Brivio M., Novi C., Ortolani C. Polli-nosi da Ambrosia artemisifolia in provinciadi Milano. Folia Allergol Immunol Clin.1990;37(2):99-105.

6. Asero R. Birch and ragweed pollinosisnorth of Milan : a model to investigate theeffects of exposure to “new” airbone aller-gens. Allergy. 2002;57:1063-6.

7. Pozzi P., Zanon P., Berra D., Chiodini E.Results of three years of aerobiologicalsampling in the atmosphere of Busto Ar-sizio. Aerobiologia. 1992;8:21-6.

8. Bonini M., Bottero P., Milani M. Preva-lence and Clinical severity of Ragweed al-lergy in a Health care population in Ma-genta town: an epidemiological study on1373 subjects. Allergy. 2009, 64 (Sup-pl.90): S429.

9. Bonini M., Cislaghi G., Colombo P.,Graziano E., Pellino P. Ambrosia a ovest diMilano. Eur J Aerobiol Environ Med.2006;(suppl.1):S168-169.

10. Comtois P.,Gagnon L. Concentrationpollinique et frequence des symptomes depollinose: une méthode pour determinerles seuils cliniques. Rev fr Allergol. 1988;28(4): 279-86.

11. Bergmann K.C, Werchan D., Maurer M.,Zuberbier. The threshold value of Am-brosia pollen inducing nasal reactions isvery low. Allergo J. 2008;17:375-6.

12. Wohrl S., Stingl G. Understimation of al-lergies in elderly patients. Lancet. 2004;363:249.

772/2014


Ragweed allergy in the legnano area:over 20 years of studyE. RE, B. BRAMÈ, L. MARCHIONNI

Ambulatorio di Allergologia U.O. Medicina Interna - Ospedale Civile di Legnano, Presidio di Legnano, Milano - Email: [email protected]


Background

Ragweed pollen count is raised year-by-year in the central area of Ukraine. Itsprovoke ragweed pollen sensitizationamong the population of Vinnitsa regionfor recent years. In the regions with oldand well-known contamination by Am-brosia pollen like Dnepropetrovskaoblast of Ukraine sensitization of thistype was rated as 7-21% among childrenin years 2005-2007. It was often associ-ated with the sensitivity to mugwort(Artemisia), sunflower (Helianthus an-nuus) and giant sumpweed (Cyclachaenaxanthiifolia) pollen. Children’ rate sensi-tive to both Ambrosia and Cyclachenapollen grains ranged from 10,38 to27,52%. Sensitization to ragweed andmugwort pollen were seen for 10,85% to27,52% of children tested there [1]. Theaim of our study was to determine thecharacter of sensitivity of children toragweed pollen grains in the Vinnitsa re-gion.

Method

Symptoms of seasonal allergy were ana-lyzed by reviewing medical records froman allergy specialty clinic at Vinnitsa Re-

gional Clinical Children’s Hospital, Vin-nitsa, Ukraine. 38 patients aged from 3to 16 years were reviewed with 20 select-ed for further analysis among childrenadmitted from 2004 to 2013. Prick testsfor inhalant pollens using extracts madein Ukraine were done.

Results

17 or 85% of patients were males. Only3 were from urban Vinnitsa, others beingfrom rural areas. Children aged 6 to 10years old typically had the first appear-ance of allergy symptoms. 13 or 65% ofchildren were tested at this age for thefirst time. Sensitization to pollens pre-vailed over other sensitizations in chil-dren aged 6 to 16. Ragweed and sun-flower allergens were leading pollencausal agents for allergy symptoms forchildren aged from 3 to 5 years, oftenwith very high sensitivity. At the nextage group ragweed sensitivity was lessprominent. Poaceae pollen was the lead-ing causal agent for allergy symptoms ofthe children aged 6 to 10 years. Rag-weed-sensitized patients strongly react-ed to the mugwort and sunflower pollenin this group as well. Sensitivity to treepollen was revealed in the group of chil-

dren aged 11 to 16. Ambrosia sensitiza-tion from moderate to very high levelwas determined just for 2 patients from9 children tested in this group. Both ofthem were sensitized to mugwort anddandelion pollen. Allergy to grass pollenpredominated among children of thisgroup too.

Conclusion

Ragweed pollen is the leading causalagent for allergy symptoms of the chil-dren from early childhood in central re-gion of Ukraine. Sensitivity to Ambrosiapollen is replaced by Poacea and treepollen allergy respectively with the ageincrease. Combined sensitization to dif-ferent pollen types including Asteraceafamily members is seen for children test-ed.

References

1. K.D. Duka, V.O. Dytjatkovs’’kyj, N.V. Nau-menko. Current spectrum of hay fever chil-dren sensitization. (Suchasnyj stan spektrasensybilizacii’ v ditej, hvoryh na polinoz(Ukr)) Journal “Child health” [Zdorov’erebenka ] 6 (15) 2008: 30-32.

78 G.E.A.


Ragweed pollen sensitivity amongchildren of central UkraineV.V. RODINKOVA1, O.V. CHIRKA2, E.G. GELMAN1, I.I. MOTRUK1, O.O. PALAMARCHUK1

1Vinnitsa National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnitsa, Ukraine - Email: [email protected] Regional Clinical Children’s Hospital, Vinnitsa, Ukraine


The North-Western Milan (NWM) andSouth Varese areas (Lombardy, NorthernItaly), are the short-ragweed most infest-ed areas in Italy and one of the most pol-luted in Europe. A specific epidemiolog-ical study, showed that in the first area atleast 14% of the sample population wasallergic to ragweed, with an increase ofprevalence from 9.2% (1996) to 14%(2005) and high percentage of asthma(more than 40%) in ragweed allergic pa-tients. Ragweed is the main cause ofpollinosis in the NWM area: a study(2008-2010) in an Allergy Serviceshowed that 71% of new patients suffer-ing from pollinosis were allergic to rag-weed. A more recent study (2012) wasconducted in order to evaluate the epi-demiology and the prevalence of ragweedallergy in a sample population of theNWM area. During July, resident popu-lation of Sedriano (10,744 inhabitants)received a questionnaire about some per-sonal features (name, age, sex, education,occupation) and some clinical data aboutthe allergic symptoms and previous diag-

nosis of ragweed allergy. Only completequestionnaires were considered. A totalof 1,790 valid questionnaires were col-lected: 888 males (49.6%) and 902 fe-males (50.4%). The first data processing,already presented, showed that 230 peo-ple need further medical investigation,whilst 1560 people have diagnosis. Ofthem, 1304 were nonallergic (83.6%) and256 allergic (16.4%): in the studied pop-ulation ragweed allergy involves at least16.4% of the sample, suggesting an in-creased trend, since previous study in thesame area indicated a lower prevalence(14%). A higher prevalence was hypoth-esized, since 230 people waiting for acomplete diagnosis are symptomatic andin the previous study diagnosis was con-firmed in a large part of symptomaticpeople. The aggressive allergic behaviorof ragweed pollen was confirmed: around40% of ragweed allergic people showasthma, 88.3% rhinitis and 60.6% con-junctivitis. The aim of this work is to up-date the data processing of the 1,560confirmed diagnosis people. No associa-

tion was found between sexes and rag-weed allergy. A relation was found be-tween age groups and allergy. The agegroups associated to ragweed allergy are:46 to 65, 66 to 80 and over 80 years. Thefirst group present 1.48 times the risk ofallergy (Odds Ratio-OR-=1.48; age is arisk factor); the 2nd and 3rd group present0.43 and 0.069 times the risk of allergyrespectively (OR=0.43 and 0.069; age is aprotective factor). An association wasfound (χ2=10.973) between educationand ragweed allergy (χ2>3.84 significant)and the higher educated people show a1.67 times the risk to allergy (OR=1.67).We also found a significant difference(χ2=18.99) between allergic and non-al-lergic people with regards to their work(χ2>16 significant); employees present arisk 1.57 times to develop ragweed aller-gy meanwhile retired people show 0.53times the risk of developing ragweed al-lergy. This is a partial of results obtainedfrom our study, which demonstrate somerelations between ragweed allergy andsome social demographic parameters.

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Features of short-ragweed allergy inNorth Western Milan area: preliminaryresultsM. BONINI1, E.VALERIO1, C.TESTONI1, M.E.GATTONI2, S.FAGNANI3, P. BOTTERO4

1Department of Medical Prevention, Public Health, Local Health Authority of Milan 1, Italy - Email:[email protected] Graduate School in Public Health, State University of Milan, Italy3Family Doctor, Local Health Authority Milan 1, Italy4Allergy and Clinical Immunology Department, Magenta Hospital, Italy


The 20th of June, 2013, Valence Agglolaunched its “ragweed application” in theframework of the International RagweedDay. This free application is available onall smartphone types and aims:• to alert people to be able to identify

the plant via a specific menu;• to locate the plant and inform Valence

Agglo department with GPS coordi-nates;

• to inform people about the level of al-lergy risk for the days to come.

For each report, Valence Agglo depart-ment looks for the owner of the con-cerned field and asks him to destroy the

plant. Some control rounds are made byValence Agglo and reminder letters aresent. A mapping is carried out at the endof the season. In 2013, the applicationwas downloaded 700 times in 2 months,and used more than 100 times: 104 re-ports were received and followed bytreatments for public area or by informa-tion sent to the owner of the land.Among this reports, 92 of them led to acomplete treatment of the infested area.For 2014, on the basis of the application,the ARS Rhône-Alpes contributes tothe fundings of the development of aragweed regional platform for reporting,

which aims are to collect, manage andview the reports:• collect via smartphones, emails or

manual updates;• manage, allow to experts to validate

the reports and follow them up;• view according to its land (town, de-

partment, region, etc…).In the long term, the aim of this applica-tion is, on one hand, to evaluate the goodmanagement of the treatment of infestedarea and, in the other hand, to releaseand use the application on all the coun-try and, maybe, across Europe.

80 G.E.A.


Smartphone application for ragweeddescription in Rhône-Alps M-A. CHAPGIER-LABOISSIÈRE1, A. GELAS1, G. ALLIGIER2, M. THIBAUDON3

1ARS Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France - Email: [email protected] Agglo, Valence, France3RNSA, Brussieu, France


Introduction

Ambrosia is spreading invasively inmany European countries (1). Preva-lence of this allergy is extremely variablewith a peak of 40% in some areas even inEurope (2). The characteristics of rag-weed pollinosis are: severity, long lastingduration and the presence ofnasal/ocular involvement and asthmaand/or tracheitis in many cases (3). InTreviglio’s General Hospital, allergyclinic provide diagnosis and allergen im-munotherapy (AIT) for the major aller-gic disease including Ragweed polli-nosis, according to Word Allergy Or-ganization (WAO) guideline (4). In Tre-viglio’s area, Bergamo’s airport and therealization of the new motorway“BREBEMI” connecting Brescia, Berg-amo and Milan passing across Treviglio’ssuburbs (started around 2007 and justabout being completed) could haveplayed a role in Ambrosia diffusion.

Objective

Aim of this paper is to analyse the trendof Ragweed Immunotherapy (IT) pre-scriptions over ten years follow up in

Treviglio’s area, located near Bergamo,Northen Italy.

Methods

Since 2004 a database of Treviglio’s AITprescription is constantly upgraded. Go-ing through our files we scored totalnumber of AIT prescriptions and num-ber of Ragweed IT, either Subcutaneousor Sublingual. We designed the Rag-weed IT trend over ten years.

Results

The percentage of patients receiving Rag-weed IT increased from 3.5% to over 6.7%among 10 years: The increasing rate seemsto be constant except for a peak in 2008(5.3%) and a second one in 2013 (6.7%).

Conclusion

In Treviglio’s area, Ambrosia ITS prescrip-tions have almost doubled! Increasing pre-scriptions for Ambrosia IT over the timecould be considered an indirect index of in-creasing number of patient not only sensi-

tized, but also symptomatic to Ragweed,even in this area considered at low Am-brosia diffusion up to now. Despite appli-cation also in this area of regional low onAmbrosia environmental control (5), Rag-weed allergy is becoming here a publichealth trouble, involving important eco-nomical aspects too. Our next aim is tocollect data about Ragweed sensitizationtrend and clinical manifestation of respira-tory allergy in our area, underlining theimportance to compare clinical data withaerobiologic records, not available at themoment.

References

1. Smith M, Cecchi L, et al. Common ragweed:a threat to environmental health in Europe.Environ Int. 2013 Nov;61:115-126.

2. Burbach GJ, Heinzerling LM, et al. Ragweedsensitization in Europe - GA(2)LEN studysuggests increasing prevalence. Allergy. 2009Apr;64(4):664-665.

3. Déchamp C. Ambrosia pollinosis. Rev MalRespir. 2013 Apr;30(4):316-327.

4. Canonica GW, Bousquet J, et al. Sub-lingualImmunotherapy World Allergy OrganizationPosition Paper 2009. Allergy 2009; 64: Suppl91:1-59.

5. Ordinanza Regione Lombardia n°25522 del29/3/99.

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Trend of prescription of ragweedimmunotherapy over ten years asindirect index of ragweed allergy intreviglio’s areaG. MANZOTTI, A. BESOZZI, S. PANZA, M. DESTRO

Medical Department Treviglio General Hospital, Treviglio, Italy - Email: [email protected]


Currently, the Northwest of the Provinceof Milan (Lombardy, Northern Italy) isone of the most European polluted areasby ragweed. Indeed, Ambrosia has enor-mously spread due to changes in the eco-logical balance since the early ’90s, lead-ing to the birth of a vast public healthproblem. Ragweed pollen causes the on-set of allergic diseases, so the assessmentof health costs related to it is an impor-tant tool to estimate annual Ambrosiaimpact on public health (1). Aim of thiswork is to assess the direct health carecosts related to ragweed allergy in theLocal Health Authority Milan 1 juris-diction (924.417 inhabitants), from 2001to 2011. Our hypothesis is an inferencebased on the annual percentage of newragweed allergic patients of the totalnumber of new patients suffering of res-piratory allergies and pollinosis, thenumber of patients in SIT (specific im-

munotherapy), the data of hospital ad-missions due to pollinosis, the data ofdrug and allergenic extracts consump-tion as well as clinical and therapeuticexperience of the allergists. Data is furnished by hospital allergy de-partments (a total of 15 departments: 13in public hospitals and 2 in private), Epi-demiological Office and Pharmacy Serv-ice of the Local Health Authority Milan1 and the two public Hospital Organiza-tions (each is a group of several hospitalswith the same direction).The followingtable shows direct costs related to rag-weed allergy: data on costs for first ex-amination testing, control examinationin SIT patients, allergenic extracts, otherdrugs consumption and clinical admis-sions due to ragweed pollinosis.This assessment of direct health carecosts is however not exhaustive since itdoes not include the drugs sold without

prescription, the indirect costs (loss ofproductivity by patients) and intangiblecosts (related to impairment in the qual-ity of life) (2). Data shown could be use-ful to evaluate the effectiveness of activ-ities to control ragweed allergy in LocalHealth Authority Milan 1 jurisdiction.This data would be more accurate if aragweed dedicated data bank was avail-able.

References

1. Bonini M, Bodina A, Frigerio C, Pellino P,Bottero P. 2012, “Can drug consumption bea ragweed pollinosis epidemiology indica-tor?”, Proceedings of 2nd International Rag-weed Conference, Lyon.

2. D’Amato G, Bonini S, Bousquet J, DurhamSR, Platts-Mills TAE. 2001, “Pollenosis2000 Global Approach”, JGC Editions,Naples, Italy.

82 G.E.A.


Assessment of health costs due toragweed allergyM. BONINI, C. TESTONI, E. VALERIO

Department of Medical Prevention, Public Health, Local Health Authority of Milan 1, Italy - Email: [email protected]

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

First examination (€) 83.013 82.810 94.019 104.398 129.123 128.639 121.920 147.206 146.483 152.939 180.599

Control examination 114.435 68.216 86.464 73.884 95.361 112.459 112.876 81.663 91.783 84.819 76.403SIT patients (€)

Allergenic 191.319 141.264 194.064 177.521 223.636 263.734 274.456 275.470 335.256 378.369 333.731extracts (€)

Drugs (€) 1.251.182 1.084.631 639.527 981.656 1.145.266 1.426.646 1.143.661 1.389.622 1.115.623 1.105.310 1.216.590

Clinical 32.065 13.496 18.709 11.278 17.498 27.282 13.671 24.321 16.748 20.849 24.128admission (€)

Total costs (€) 1.672.014 1.390.417 1.032.783 1.348.737 1.610.884 1.958.760 1.666.585 1.918.283 1.705.893 1.742.285 1.831.450

Tab. 1 -


The Rhône General Council, under theaegis of Mr Jean-Luc Da Passano, elect-ed at the highway department, pharma-cist and Mayor of Irigny, has been com-mitted for over 15 years in the fightagainst ragweed. This problem was diffi-cult to position in public actions and hadgone through many services, and has cre-ated (then aggregated) different types ofaction to make a complete package:- from 2000 to 2003, public health serv-

ice: establishment of information doc-uments to pharmacies and MSA (agri-cultural insurance);

- from 2004 to 2008, in agriculture andenvironment department: develop-ment of a new communication media(itinerant exhibitions, letters to all au-thorities of the Rhone, ragweed tollfree number, press articles, …);

- from 2008 to nowadays, road services:recovery of the global coordination ofexisting packages, integration to thesteering committee of Health authori-ties, design and implementation ofrevegetation techniques to take preven-tive actions in the fight against ragweed.

During all these years, Jean-Luc Da Pas-sano motivated and supported innova-tion of actions on the political level, giv-ing necessary funds for:- documents for communication: 5000 €

/year;- markets mowing insertion: 110 000 € /

year;- revegetation techniques: 400 000 € /

year in the frame of cross-actions;- personal along the roads: 2-3 mecha-

nized mowing/year.Since 6 years, the revegetation tech-

niques in road sectors or wasteland haveshown its efficiency. In 2013, the experi-mental site of Communay, infested byragweed on all the 3.5 hectares of thefield has been treated hydraulic grassing.Being a biological control, the aim is tocompete with ragweed by planting otherplants. This competition takes place byoccupying the place where ragweedgrows depriving it of sunlight and water.With an optimum price-quality ratio,1.5 to 2 €/m², this biological controlavoids the use of herbicides but needs tobe well-reasoned on two years, by fol-lowing accurate procedures. After thefirst shoot of seedlings produced in2013, this procedure has shown 100% ofefficiency but has invited to be vigilantbecause ragweed seeds are viable in thesoil during almost twenty years.

832/2014


Ragweed action in rhone department,FranceJ. DA PASSANO1, M. NUEZ1, M. THIBAUDON2

1Conseil Général du Rhône, Lyon, France - Email: [email protected]éseau National de Surveillance Aérobiologique, Brussieu, France


The monitoring of allergenic pollen isbecoming more important in relation tothe increase of the prevalence of allergicsin the last few years in Piedmont and inItaly. Like other species of pollen, theragweed (Ambrosia) concentrations alsoare increasing in Piedmont and in thecity of Turin. The scientific literatureclaims that ragweed pollen is a verystrong allergen and causes various dis-eases in allergy sufferers. Symptoms in-clude sneezing, inflammation of nasaland conjunctival membranes. Severecomplications include asthma, chronicobstructive pulmonary disease, and ana-phylaxis. The aim of this study was toanalyze the stream of entrances in theemergency rooms of Turin for some typ-ical pathologies of who are allergic topollen. We used the airborne pollen datafrom 2007 to 2012 and health data forthe same period (allergic rhinitis, con-junctivitis, pollinosis and asthma - ICDIX: 472.0, 477, 493). Examining the en-trances to the emergency room, we have

observed a correlation between incre-ments of the ragweed concentration andthe trend of access to the emergencyroom. In particular, the increments ofaverage weekly of Ambrosia is matched

by an increments of the number of week-ly entrances into the emergency room,from the following weeks (Figure 1).Other aspects about the effect of thehealth will be deepened.

84 G.E.A.


The effects of ragweed on the publichealth: analysis of the entrances tothe emergency room in the city of turin(Italy)P. CARNÀ, C. IVALDI

ARPA Piemonte, Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale - Turin, Italy - Email: [email protected] - [email protected]

Fig. 1 -


During the last decades ragweed (Am-brosia artemisiifolia) has progressivelycolonized Northern Italy, as other partsof Europe, becoming the first cause ofrespiratory allergy in humans, especiallyin the area of Milan (1,2).The aim of thisstudy is to describe the patterns of rag-weed pollen hypersensitivity in atopicdogs from Northern Italy. The results of357 allergic tests (319 intradermal testsand 38 serologic tests) performed be-tween 2003 and 2013 were evaluated.Tests with ragweed positivity werechecked for dogs’ gender, age, breed andgeographical origin, presence of concur-rent reactions with other allergens andtemporal distribution. Ninety tests, 82intradermal (25,7%) and eight serologic(21%), were positive to ragweed for anoverall prevalence of 25,2%, which wasthe highest among pollens. Among dogsthere was no significant difference ingender distribution, the average age was4,18 years and the most common breeds

were cross-breed (13,3%) and boxer(9%). Fifty dogs (55,5%) came from theprovince of Milan and the majority livedin urban areas. Ragweed presented co-positivity with at least one other weedpollen in 82,2% of cases. The associationwith mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) wasthe most frequent (50%). Positivity toragweed showed high variability over theyears, ranging between 9,1% (2008 and2010) and 37,5% (2011). Similar resultswere observed when considering the testsfrom the province of Milan, with preva-lence ranged from 4,1% (2007) to 33,3%(2011). This study confirms ragweedpollen as the plant allergen more in-volved in canine atopic dermatitis inNorthern Italy as reported by our previ-ous study, with an increased prevalencefrom 21,6% to 25,2% (3). Such as report-ed in humans, high prevalence of co-pos-itivity between ragweed and mugwortwas observed (4). Nevertheless, furtherinvestigations are needed to establish

whether this is due to cross-reactivity orco-sensitization. Changes in environ-mental factors could be partly responsiblefor the variability observed in the preva-lence of ragweed positive reactions be-tween different years.

References

1. Oswalt ML and Marshall GD. Ragweed asan example of worldwide allergen expan-sion. All Asthma Clin Immunol, 2008, 4,130-135.

2. Asero R. Ragweed allergy in northern Italy:are patterns of sensitization changing? EurAnn Allergy Clin Immunol, 2012, 44, 157-159.

3. Furiani N, Scarampella F, Noli C, Ordeix L.Studio retrospettivo di 486 test intradermi-ci effettuati su cani atopici nel Nord Italia.Veterinaria, 2009, 23,41-46.

4. Asero R, Wopfnerw N, Gruberw P, Gader-maierw G, F. Ferreira. Artemisia and Am-brosia hypersensitivity: co-sensitization orco-recognition? Clin Exp Allergy, 2006, 36,658–665.

852/2014


Ragweed pollen hypersensitivity inatopic dogs: evaluation of 357 allergictests from a referral practice in Milan(2003-2013)N. FURIANI1, L. ORDEIX2, C. SARETTO3 , G. ZANNA3, F. SCARAMPELLA3

1Ospedale Veterinario Portoni Rossi, Bologna, Italy - Email: [email protected] de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals, Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Servei de Dermatologia, ArsVeterinaria, Barcelona, Spain3Studio Dermatologico Veterinario, Milano, Italy


Ambrosia day, 2014Ragweed allergy: 15 years ofpreventionApril 4th, 2014, Rho (Milan), Italy

09-Intro 2+ session 1:07-boi 25-03-2014 13:29 Pagina 87

Comitato Scientifico ed Organizzatore

Responsabile scientifico: Maira BoniniSegreteria scientifica: Maira Bonini, Paolo Bottero, Sandra Citterio

Segreteria Organizzativa: Segreteria del Dipartimento di Prevenzione Medica dell'ASL Milano 1


La pianta e il polline

Moderatori: Giuseppe Frenguelli, Sandra Citterio

Sessione I


Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifo-lia) is an annual invasive species that col-onizes perturbed and open habitats. Thepresence along the roadsides (1) of alarge amount of this allergenic plantspecies during its flowering period is amajor problem in terms of public health.Historical studies indicated that thisspecies has been introduced at variousindependent geographical points and atvarious times in Europe. Commercialtrade and American troops have con-tributed to its spread during the XXthcentury (2). At first present in cultivatedhabitats, its recent spread in differentnew areas is explained by the co-occur-rence of different ecological and agro-nomical factors. Different surveys in Eu-rope showed that ragweed infestationsincrease along roadside, which appearsto be not only favourable habitats but al-so corridors for its spread in new areas.Different reasons can explain the successof common ragweed along roadside: i) alate germination in spring, ii) soil distur-

bance is favourable for the developmentof this annual species seeds, iii) wintersalting limits the growth of the otherspecies and gives to ragweed an advan-tage explained by its salt tolerance (3),iv) the seeds are disseminated by mow-ing machines (4).The high ability of common ragweed tobe invasive is due to its huge plasticity inseed mass which may help it to copewith a wide range of conditions and toestablish in disturbed habitats.. But, ifcommon ragweed appears to be a suc-cessful pioneer in early successionalhabitats with a high degree of distur-bance (erosion area, burning places) (5),the species does not seem to be able inFrance to compete in habitats with a lev-el of competition (meadow, forest). Theefficacy of mowing is limited by the highresprouting capacity of common rag-weed (4). The timing and the frequencyof mown can modify its reproductivetraits and this species seems always ableto produce enough seeds that can main-

tain the density of the population. InFrance, a study of common ragweedspread on the ‘Autoroutes Paris RhinRhône’ network showed that its densityincreased between 2010 and 2012 de-spite a strict plant management. Due thehigh variability of this species, its abilityto tolerate various stress (mowing, herbi-cide, eg.,), it seems that only a preventivemanagement appears to be effective tocontrol its spread before the establish-ment of a seedbank.

References

1. Joly M, Bertrand P, et al. Environmentalmanagement, 2011, 48, 514-522.

2. Chauvel B, Dessaint F, et al. Journal of Bio-geography, 2006, 33, 665-673.

3. DiTommaso A. Weed Science, 2004, 52,1002-1009.

4. Vitalos M, Karrer G. Neobiota, 2009, 58,53-60.

5. Fumanal B, Girod C, et al. Weed Research,2008, 48, 349-359.

Introduction spread of commonragweed in europe: ecological aspectsB. CHAUVEL1,2

1Inra, UMR1347 Agroécologie, BP 85610 Dijon, France - Email: [email protected], Observatoire des ambroisies, BP 85610 Dijon, France

2/2014 91

ƒ SS EE SS SS II OO NN EE 11


92 G.E.A.


Palynology, etymologically study of thedust, is the science that concerns specifical-ly plant dust i.e. the spores and pollengrains.This discipline provides a wide scaleof scientific activities or practices includinggeology, general biology, agronomy...

Sexual Reproduction. The fusion be-tween 2 haploid cells, the gametes, givesone diploid cell: the zygote or egg. Ga-mete fusion occurs in two steps, alwaysin the same order: fusion of cytoplasm(plasmogamy) and nuclear fusion(karyogamy). Karyogamy may be de-layed. Two haploid nuclei (dikaryon)then coexist in the cell after the plas-mogamy.Pollination. Pollination is the process bywhich pollen grains are transported fromone flower to another, allowing the ap-proximation of gametes and fertilization.Pollination mechanisms differ betweenplant species. The main agents of polli-nation are wind and animals, especiallyinsects.Anther opening and pollen dispersal.Anther opening may be considered tooccur in two simple steps: first, locularfluid disappears and second, the antheropens and the pollen grains are shed. Ex-plosive dehiscence of pollen is a charac-teristic of anemophilous species.“Ambrosia pollen is initially shed fromthe staminate flowers in large pollenclumps containing hundred of grains.These pollen grains are quickly broken,so at regional scales A pollen is releasedas a largely homogeneous plume” (1).The pollen grains. Following the firsthaploid mitosis, pollen begins to store

starch, the amount of which varies ac-cording to season in ripe pollen grains.The exine of spores and pollen grainspresent ornamentation varied and spe-cific to each taxon. This ornamentationis clearly visible on when the material isacetolysised in which the cytoplasm hasdisappeared. Mature pollen grains arecharacterised by a thin, ornamented ex-ine and an intine. Germination isthrough apertures (openings) that arethinnings of the outer wall (exine), circu-lar (pores) or elongated (= colpus)shapes. In Ambrosia there are 3 colpusand 3 pores and a spiny exine. The speci-ficity of the exine ornamentation is a re-markable property of the walls of sporesand pollen grains, the chemical nature ofthis wall is different. The substancewhich constitutes it, sporopollenin iswith cutin cuticles and chitin arthro-pods, one of the most resistant chemicalsthe living world.Some pollen grains of different speciesof Ambrosia.

References

1. Allergenic pollen, a review of the Produc-tion, Release, Distribution and Health im-pacts. M. Sofiev, KC Bergmann Editors;Springer 2013, p. 135.

Pollen grainsH. MÉON1,2

1AFEDA, 25 rue A. Paré 69800 Saint-Priest, France - Email: [email protected] de Géologie de Lyon, 2 rue R. Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France

Fig. 1 - Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.

Fig. 2 - Ambrosia tenuifolia

Fig. 3 - Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.

Fig. 4 - Ambrosia tenuifolia


La malattia nell’uomo e negli animali

Moderatori: Gianna Moscato, Alberto Flores D’Arcais

Sessione II


Morrill Wyman, teacher at Harvard uni-versity, identified Ambrosia (A) rhinitis in1872. He was ill in Boston and he wasnot in the White Mountains set in the“Rocky Mountains”. To prove this fact hebrought a short ragweed flower in theWhite Mountains and when he smelt it,he presented a rhinitis, it was the sameobservation for his son and his father.Phanerogam, dicotyledon, annual plant,monoic: Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. (Aa)were introduced from North-America toEurope at the beginning of the twentiethcentury. In Europe, four naturalizedspecies and one native could be consid-ered as source of Ambrosia-type airbornepollen. In France, fields are covered withAa (common/short ragweed) in the midRhône Valley, Ambrosia trifida L.(At) isidentified in South-West crops, A.psilostachya DC (Ap) is now identified inCamargue, A. tenuifolia Sprengel (Ate) in-troduced in Sète in 1839 is in Por-querolles. A. maritima (Am), the nativespecies, is found on the marine sands ofthe Mediterranean region. A pollen is themain trigger of rhinitis (90%), conjunc-tivitis (75%), asthma (50%) and some-times of dermatitis and of the oral syn-drome (Kennel thesis 1987). The firstsymptoms generally occur simultaneous-ly. Pollinosis, now called seasonal allergicrhinitis by the international terminology,includes other symptoms, so we use theterm A. pollinosis. The characteristics of

A pollinosis are severity, duration -fromAugust to September (recently from theend of July to the start of October)- andthe presence of asthma and/or tracheitisin about 50% of cases. Bronchial symp-toms generally appeared a few weeks af-ter nasal symptoms. The impact of Apollen differs among patients: sometimesthey are mono-sensitized, the diseasestarts late in life, no personal or familyhistory of atopy is found, the titration ofserum total immunoglobulin levels (totalIgE) is within the normal range, some-times they are poly-sensitized, the diseasestarts earlier in life, personal or familyhistory of atopy is found, total serum IgEare higher than in the other group. Inboth groups, the clinical reactivity is sim-ilar; skin tests are positive in 93% of cas-es and a positive correlation between skintest and IgE specific titration (Aa) are ob-served in 85% of cases (Kennel). Theseverity of symptoms and the appearanceof asthma are in both groups correlatedwith A pollen counts values. Moreover, inLyon, about 65% of sensitized patients toA are sensitized to Artemisia. During theA pollination there is no other allergenicpollen except Artemisia (only at the startand the end of the A pollination): so di-agnosis is easy. It must be confirmed afterthe A pollination season by a skin test andan IgE specific titration: it is dangerousto do a skin test during the symptoms pe-riod. The French Foundation For Rag-

weed Study (AFEDA) applies a predic-tive model of A pollination for improvingcare for allergic patients, thanks to a sen-sitive pollen monitoring trap always set at3m high. This Cour pollen trap is impor-tant because for certain patients thresh-old values for clinical symptoms develop-ment is of some pollen grains/m3, about 5(Déchamp et al 1995). In contrast to oth-er pollen types, A pollinosis tends to bemore prevalent in suburbs than in towns(Harf and Déchamp 2001). In Europe,from 1987 to 2010, different kinds ofpublications may be distinguished: stud-ies where authors tell about the % of Apollinosis treated in their unit, officialevaluations without epidemiologicalstudy, clinical/biological hypersensitivitystudies, real epidemiological studies (inthe Milano area and in the mid Rhônevalley). No works seems published aboutthe allergy impact of every A identified inEurope except Aa, but numerous aller-gens have been identified for some yearsinto Aa, At, Ate. Some of them presents across-reactivity. These works bring aproof of the allergenicity of these pollenthat is mentioned in non scientific infor-mations in Internet. The other Ambrosiaspecies seem have not been studied. Inconclusion, as, now, European Union isinterested in ragweed subject, it would beimportant to realize prevalence studies ineach polluted country with a commonprotocol.

Allergy: the human health impact ofragweed -Ambrosia- pollenC. DÉCHAMP

Association Française d’Etude des Ambroisies (AFEDA), 69800 Saint-Priest, France - Email : [email protected]

2/2014 95



Le malattie allergiche sono comunemen-te riportate negli animali domestici. Traqueste, le forme atopiche sono ad oggiben riconosciute nel cane, nel gatto e nelcavallo. Le loro manifestazioni clinichevariano da specie a specie: nel cane la piùcomune è la dermatite atopica (DA),spesso associata a congiuntivite, mentrenel gatto come nel cavallo possono osser-varsi sia forme cutanee che respiratorie, inalcuni casi associate tra loro. Il ruolo del-l’ambrosia nella patogenesi di queste ma-lattie è stato solo marginalmente studiato.I dati più consistenti si hanno nel cane,mentre nessuna informazione specificaesiste ad oggi per il gatto. Riguardo al ca-vallo, i pochi studi disponibili in lettera-tura sembrano indicare che l’ambrosia ab-bia un ruolo limitato sia nelle forme cuta-nee, come la DA e l’orticaria ricorrente,che in quelle croniche respiratorie. Laprevalenza della sensibilizzazione all’am-brosia nei cani atopici sembra essere cor-relata con il grado di diffusione dellapianta nelle varie aree geografiche. Studi

eseguiti nel Nord America, in cuil’ambrosia è nativa, riportano una preva-lenza elevata, variabile dal 35% al 59%, siaverso allergeni testati singolarmente chein gruppo (2). Studi europei degli anni’90 mostrano valori contenuti tra 7,7%(Grecia) e 9,2% (Francia) (2). Mentrestudi recenti riguardanti il Nord Italia,soprattutto la provincia di Milano, e laSerbia, aree in cui l’ambrosia è ad oggimolto diffusa, rivelano che A. artemisiifo-lia è il secondo allergene maggiormentecoinvolto nella DA canina con prevalen-ze del 21,6% e 66%, rispettivamente (3,1)In uno studio del 2006 sulla DA canina inUngheria, Artemisia vulgaris è risultatol’allergene pollinico con più risposte posi-tive (7,8%) diversamente dall’ambrosia(<4%). Come in umana, così anche neicani atopici spesso si osserva positivitàconcomitante tra ambrosia e artemisia neitest allergologici ma se ciò è dovuto a co-sensibilizzazione o cross-reattività non èstato indagato. I maggiori allergeni di A.artemisiifolia interessati nella DA canina

sono stati da poco identificati da Ognje-novic e colleghi e corrispondono agliisoallergeni del gruppo Amb a 1, gli stes-si riconosciuti nell’uomo.

References

1. Milcic-Matic N, Popovic N, Lazarevic M,Medenica L. The role of Ambrosia artemisii-folia allergen in canine atopic dermatitis.Acta Vet, 2010, 60, 183-196.

2. Hill PB, De Boer DJ. The ACVD task forceon canine atopic dermatitis (IV): environ-mental allergens. Vet Immunol Immunopa-thol, 2001, l81, 169–186.

3. Furiani N, Scarampella F, Noli C, Ordeix L.Studio retrospettivo di 486 test intradermi-ci effettuati su cani atopici nel Nord Italia.Veterinaria, 2009, 23, 41-46.

4. Tarpataki N, Papa K, Reiczigel J et al.Prevalence and features of canine atopicdermatitis in hungary. Acta Vet Hung,2006, 54, 353–366.

5. Ognjenovic J, Milcic-Matic N, Smiljanica Ket al. Immunoproteomic characterization ofAmbrosia artemisiifolia pollen allergens incanine atopic dermatitis. Vet Immunol Im-munopathol, 2013, 155, 38– 47.

96 G.E.A.


Allergia al polline dell’ambrosia inmedicina veterinariaN. FURIANI

Ospedale Veterinario I Portoni Rossi, Bologna, Italia - Libero professionista, Perugia, Italia - Email: [email protected]


972/2014


In Austria, about 20% of pollen-allergicindividuals suffer from weed pollen aller-gy. Before 1990, mugwort (Artemisia vul-garis) pollen was the main cause of sea-sonal allergy in late summer. In the 1990’sragweed (Ambrosia artemisifolia) plantshave been brought in from Hungary, andsince 2005 the number of reports on rag-weed plants tremendously increased (1).With the presence of these plants, the rag-weed pollen load and the prevalence ofragweed pollen allergy increased (2). Tofight the threat of uncontrolled ragweedexpansion and allergic sensitization, meas-ures were initiated during the last 10 yearsand financed by national and federal agen-cies. Projects were started to investigateragweed biology, geography and era -dication strategies. Agricultural productspotentially containing ragweed seeds be-came controlled, and the general aware-ness was increased by information cam-

paigns. Studies revealed that from 1997and 2007 neither the total pollen countsnor the prevalence of ragweed sensitiza-tion increased to the extent that the plantreports had suggested. During the last 6years the total ragweed pollen load re-mained relatively constant. Interestingly,the pollen season also became shorter.Thus, the relevance of ragweed pollen al-lergy in Austria for the moment may berated “intermediate”. A major problem inthe assessment of ragweed allergy arisesfrom cross-reactions with mugwort pollenallergens. As the ragweed pollen seasonoverlaps with the mugwort pollen season,diagnosis using pollen extracts is especial-ly difficult in areas with exposure to bothpollen species. In 2004, relevant mugwortand ragweed-pollen allergens becameavailable by molecular cloning and wereuseful tools to address the question ofcross- versus co-sensitization in patients

allergic to both allergen sources at theIgE- and T cell level. We found that aller-gy to mugwort- resp. ragweed pollen ischaracterized by the major allergens Art v1 and Amb a 1. Neither allergen essential-ly contributes to the cross-reactivity of thetwo pollen species. Hence, by assessmentof IgE against Art v 1 and Amb a 1 cross-vs. co-sensitization to both weeds can bediscriminated and has implications forspecific immunotherapy.

References

1. Essl, F. 2011. http://www.ages.at/ages /ages-akademie/archiv/dokumentation/ programm-2011/ragweed-25112011/

2. Jäger, S. 2007. http://www.noel.gv.at/ Ge-sundheit/Gesundheitsvorsorge-Forschung -/Umwelt mediz in-undUmwelthygie-ne/GS2_Gesundheitsvorsorge_Ragweed.html#Downloads

Weed pollen-allergy in austria: cross-and co-sensitization against ragweed-and mugwort pollenB. JAHN-SCHMID1, K. BASTL2, U. E. BERGER2, W. HEMMER3, R. ASERO4, F. FERREIRA5, B. BOHLE1

1Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research - Email: [email protected] Group Aerobio�logy and Pollen Information, Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Medical University of Vienna, 3Allergiezentrum Floridsdorf, Vienna, Austria, 4Clinica San Carlo, Paderno Dugnano, Italy, 5Department of Molecular Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria


Gli interventi di sanità pubblica

Moderatori: Anna Tosi, Paolo Bottero

Sessione III


Nel nord-ovest della Provincia di Mila-no Ambrosia artemisiifolia è conosciutadai botanici fin dal 1940 come piantaesotica naturalizzata. Agli inizi degli an-ni ’80 era presente solo sporadicamente esostanzialmente sconosciuta dal punto divista allergologico. Dagli anni ’90, a se-guito di alterazioni dell’equilibrio ecolo-gico, si è diffusa enormemente ed oggiquesta zona è una delle più inquinate dapolline di Ambrosia in Europa. La conse-guenza in termini di salute della popola-zione è l’elevata quota di soggetti ad es-sa allergici, con conseguenti elevati costidiretti ed indiretti associati. I dati più re-centi evidenziano che Ambrosia è la prin-cipale causa di pollinosi nella zona e cheogni anno a circa 3.250 persone viene di-agnosticata questa allergia, pari al 54%delle pollinosi ed al 38% di tutte le aller-gie respiratorie diagnosticate. Nel 2013almeno il 16,4% della popolazione resi-dente era allergica all’Ambrosia (risultatipreliminari), con un trend in aumento eduna elevata percentuale di asmatici (circail 40%). La diffusione della pianta ha av-uto quindi un grande impatto sulla salu-te della popolazione della zona, configu-randosi come un vero e proprio proble-

ma di salute pubblica ed appare evidentecome si siano resi necessari interventi diprevenzione primaria a tutela della salu-te dei cittadini. Con questa finalità, laRegione Lombardia nel 1999 ha emana-to un primo provvedimento che prevede-va l’esecuzione di tre sfalci consecutiviantecedenti la fioritura, ma la cui appli-cazione si è rivelata problematica (per lapossibilità di utilizzare un solo metododi contenimento e per la numerositàdegli interventi da eseguire secondo laperiodicità prevista). L’ASL Milano 1, incollaborazione con Regione Lombardiae Provincia di Milano, ha quindi condot-to uno studio sperimentale quadriennale,dimostrando l’efficienza e la fattibilità didiversi metodi di contenimento dell’in-festante (uno o due tagli antecedenti lafioritura, in relazione al tipo di area; pac-ciamatura; aratura; diserbo), alla basedelle attuali indicazioni regionali. Le alt-re misure preventive implementatedall’ASL prevedono il controllo del ter-ritorio, attraverso il monitoraggio aero-biologico e la vigilanza sulle aree infesta-te, la collaborazione e consulenza ai Co-muni e gli interventi di informazione e dieducazione sanitaria alla popolazione,

questi ultimi fondamentali per rendereaccettabili gli interventi di contenimentoproposti. Il risultato di questa strategiadi prevenzione primaria, improntata allaflessibilità e all’integrazione degli stru-menti a disposizione, è stato positivo, inquanto si è tradotta in un trend in dimi-nuzione delle concentrazione di pollineaerodiffuso di Ambrosia, specialmentenelle zone inizialmente meno infestate.Trend che nel 2013 è stato favorito an-che dalla diffusione accidentale di un co-leottero, Ophraella communa, che si cibapreferibilmente proprio di questa pianta.Gli effetti di questo insetto saranno stu-diati approfonditamente nell’ambito del-la COST ACTION EU “SMARTER”(Sustainable Management of Ambrosiaartemisiifolia in Europe), cui l’ASL par-tecipa attraverso un proprio rappresen-tante. La collaborazione internazionale,e nazionale, è infatti essenziale per lo svi-luppo della ricerca, lo scambio delle in-formazioni, la definizione di una strate-gia e di una legislazione comunitaria, maanche utile per risolvere le questioniaperte a livello locale (ad es. la necessitàdi una diversa forma di provvedimentoregionale o nazionale).

1012/2014


Allergia all’ambrosia: 15 anni diprevenzione nell’ASL Milano 1M. BONINI

Dipartimento di Prevenzione Medica, UOC Sanità Pubblica, ASL Milano 1 - Email: [email protected]


In the province of Québec (Canada),wherever ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifo-lia) is abundant, close to 18% of the pop-ulation suffers from allergic rhinitislinked to pollen dispersal.To address thissituation, more than 15 years of publichealth interventions have been imple-mented in the province of Quebec. Fed-erating these actions becomes more im-portant considering the context of cli-mate change, as health effects of rag-weed are expected to increase in preva-lence, severity and duration. In particu-lar, the Table québécoise surl’herbe à poux(TQHP), a ministerial Task force initia-tive gathering experts and stake holdersfrom different fields (public health, envi-ronment, transportation and agriculturalministries) endorses the promotion of acollaborative action at various territorialscales. In this context, the MontérégieDepartment of Public Health conductedan epidemiological study that included a

4-year follow-up of 400 allergic volun-teers in order to support evidence-baseddecisions regarding the current manage-ment of ragweed. Results showed that aconcerted control of ragweed induced asignificant reduction in plant density,pollen concentrations and allergic rhini-tis symptoms. A cost-utility analysis per-formed on these data estimated the costsof concerted control of ragweed atCDN$60,603 with an associated gain of10.15 Quality Adjusted Life Year(QALYs). This leads to an incrementalcost-utility ratio estimated atCDN$5,744/QALY. Compared to thethreshold generally accepted in Canadafor health intervention (CDN$20,000 –100,000 /QALY), the concerted controlof ragweed is a sound cost-effectivestrategy. In addition, a cartographic proj-ect has been developed in three differentregions in Québec. It aimed at predictingthe presence of ragweed depending on

the land use. Some tendencies arisingfrom this project provided insights formunicipalities with limited resources toidentify priority areas for intervention.This is particularly relevant since munic-ipalities play an increasing role in theimplementation of healthy living envi-ronment. These promising data have tobe complemented by a structured frame-work of knowledge translation. To adaptpromising and evidence-based practicesto specific territorial context, involve-ment of the different levels of govern-ment (provincial and local) is essential tosupport all regions in Québec. Hence,numerous activities (scientific webinars,technical webinars, day of continuingtraining, etc.) have been offered and un-folded to public health practitioners andmunicipal officers in order to share toolsleading to an integrative strategy of rag-weed management.

102 G.E.A.


Public health interventions againstragweed in quebec: examples from themonteregie regionN. NOISEL1, J. LACHAINE2, M-S. CLOUTIER3, P. KRZYWKOWSKI1, E. MASSON1

1Direction de santé publique, Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de la Montérégie, Longueuil, Québec, Canada - Email: [email protected]

2Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada3Centre Urbanisation Culture Société, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montréal, Québec, Canada


La prevenzione del futuro

Moderatori: Giuseppe Frenguelli, Maira Bonini, Claudio Ortolani

Sessione IV


Ambrosia artemisiifolia è una pianta infe-stante di origine americana che è stata in-trodotta accidentalmente in Europa nellaprima metà del secolo scorso. L’impatto diquesta infestante è legato a due tipi didanno, sia medico (allergie) che agrono-mico. L’infestante è presente sul territorionei campi coltivati ma predilige habitatdisturbati come zone rurali e campi incol-ti. Un controllo di tipo agronomi-co/chimico (erbicidi), sostenibile nel casodell’infestazione di campi coltivati, risultaimproponibile quando la pianta infestan-te è presente nelle aree incolte vicine aicentri abitati. Pertanto, un programma dicontrollo territoriale di Ambrosia artemi-siifolia necessita dell’attuazione di unastrategia multidisciplinare a basso impat-to ambientale, che preveda l’integrazione

di interventi di lotta biologica associati adaltre strategie di lotta integrata. La lottabiologica prevede lo studio e il successivoutilizzo di organismi (generalmente inset-ti o acari) specifici, ovvero in grado di ali-mentarsi e riprodursi unicamente sullaspecie vegetale da combattere. Tali orga-nismi specifici hanno ovviamente la stes-sa origine geografica della pianta infe-stante (in questo caso Nord America):pertanto i primi studi di lotta biologica ditipo classico si basano sul censimento del-le specie fitofaghe specifiche presenti sul-la specie da combattere nelle sue zone diorigine. Per quanto riguarda Ambrosia ar-temisiifolia, nella lista de gli organismi fi-tofagi associati alla pianta, il coleotteroOphraella communa è ai primi posti sia perla sua biologia che per il tipo di danno che

procura alla infestante. Pertanto, in uncontesto di lotta biologica di tipo classico,la presenza accidentale sul territorio dellaLombardia del coleottero Ophraella com-muna (1) permette di valutare con studi dipieno campo l’efficacia di questo speciefitofaga su Ambrosia (e sulla sua produzio-ne di polline), sia da sola che in combina-zione con altre strategie di lotta a bassoimpatto ambientale.

References

1. Müller-Schärer H, Lommen STE, RoselliniM, Bonini M, Boriani M, Bosio G, Schaff-ner U. The ragweed leaf beetle has success-fully landed in Europe: fortunate coinci-dence or threat? Weed Research, 2014, inpress.

1052/2014


Come controllare la pianta infestanteambrosia artemisiifolia in Italia medianteun approccio biologico-integratoM. CRISTOFARO

ENEA –C. R. Casaccia – UTAGRI-ECO, Roma, Italia - Email: [email protected]


The EU-COST Action FA1203 on“Sustainable control of Ambrosiaartemisiifolia L. (Asteraceae) in Europe(SMARTER)” was launched in February2013 and will last for four years. Thirty-three countries have already signed theMemorandum of Understanding andover 180 researchers with specialists inweed research, invasive alien speciesmanagement, ecology, aerobiology, aller-gology and economics are registered par-ticipants of SMARTER. COST Actionsinterlink nationally funded research proj-ects and enable and finance conferences,working groups, training schools and re-search exchanges. SMARTER aims toinitiate and develop long-term and sus-tainable control methods, to integratethese into existing mechanical and chem-ical control measures, and to quantify thesuccess of these measures both for agri-culture and health. The focus is on bio-logical control methods with insects andfungi (especially using alien species fromthe area of origin of Ambrosia) and vege-

tation management to achieve a compet-itive plant cover. The envisaged outcomesof SMARTER will allow the variousstakeholders to select optimal habitat-and region-specific combinations of con-trol methods. After an introduction andoverview of the structure and the state ofthe Action, we briefly describe twoplanned activities typical for our Action,a study on the population dynamics ofAmbrosia in different climates and habi-tats in Europe as a basis for estimatingthe efficiency of control measures, and aninterdisciplinary study to clarify the im-pact the of North American native Am-brosia leaf beetle Ophraella communa(Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) recentlyfound in southern Switzerland andnorthern Italy (1, 2). SMARTER is anideal framework to respond quickly tothe recent establishments of O. communain Europe and to collect the data that willhelp decide whether this event should beconsidered as a troublesome introductionof an alien invertebrate that causes dam-

age to crops or native plant species, orwhether it is likely to becomethe first case of a successful biologicalcontrol of an invasive weed in Europe.Finally, we will briefly present the newlylaunched iPhone App “The SMARTERAmbrosia Reporter”, which mainlyserves to report the occurrence of Rag-weed when you see it around. It also fea-tures a version for professionals, includ-ing more detailed information about thelocation and the vegetation.

References

1. Boriani M, Calvi M, Taddei A, Tantardini A,Cavagna B, Spadoni Andreani F, MontagnaM, Lommen S, M�ller-Schärer H. 2013. Oph-raella communa segnalata in Italia su Ambrosia,L’Informatore agrario 34, 2. (in Italian)

2. Müller-Schärer H, Lommen STE, RoselliniM, Bonini M, Boriani M, Bosio G, SchaffnerU. 2014. The ragweed leaf beetle has success-fully landed in Europe: fortunate coincidenceor threat? Weed Research, in press.

106 G.E.A.


Sustainable management of ambrosiaartemisiifolia in europe (cost fa1203-smarter): objectives, recentachievements and future opportunitiesH. MÜLLER-SCHÄRER, S. LOMMEN

Departement of Biology, Unit Ecology & Evolution, University of Fribourg - Email: [email protected]


Classical biological control is one of themanagement strategies of ragweed inves-tigated within the EU-COST ActionSMARTER “Sustainable management ofAmbrosia artemisiifolia in Europe”. Thismethod constitutes the introduction ofhighly specific natural antagonists fromthe native range of the weed. For such in-troduction to be safe and efficient, boththe potential risks and impact, respective-ly, need to be assessed beforehand. Toprospectively evaluate the potential im-pact of biological control agents on thelong-term dynamics of ragweed popula-tions, and in the wide range of environ-ments throughout Europe, a modellingapproach could be useful (1). Our research

focusses on the development of a popula-tion dynamics model of ragweed that al-lows such evaluation. We first outline howwe collect data on ragweed populations toconstruct the model. Since the ragweedleaf beetle, Ophraella communa, was re-cently found to have established south ofthe Alps in Northern Italy and SouthernSwitzerland (2, 3), we then focus on thiscase study to exemplify how the impact ofthis potential biocontrol agent will be as-sessed using the model. We finally showthat the same method can be used to eval-uate other management strategies, such asvegetation management.

References

1. Morin L, Reid AM, Sims-Chilton NM,Buckley YM, Dhileepan K., Hastwell GT,Nordblom TL, Raghu S. Review of ap-proaches to evaluate the effectiveness ofweed biological control agents. BiologicalControl, 2009, 51, 1-15.

2. Boriani M, Calvi M, Taddei A, TantardiniA, Cavagna B, Spadoni Andreani F, Monta-gna M, Lommen S, M�ller-Schärer H. Oph-raella communa segnalata in Italia su Ambro-sia, L’Informatore agrario, 2013, 34, 2. (inItalian)

3. Müller-Schärer H, Lommen STE, RoselliniM, Bonini M, Boriani M, Bosio G,Schaffner U. The ragweed leaf beetle hassuccessfully landed in Europe: fortunate co-incidence or threat? Weed Research, 2014,in press.

1072/2014


A population dynamics modellingapproach for the management ofragweed – a case study of a potentialbiocontrol agent in northern ItalyS. LOMMEN1, E. JONGEJANS2, U. SCHAFFNER3, M. BONINI4, H. MÜLLER-SCHÄRER1

1Unit Ecology & Evolution, Departement of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland - Email: [email protected] Ecology and Ecophysiology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands3Ecosystem Management, CABI, Delémont, Switzerland4Dipartimento di Prevenzione Medica, ASL MILANO 1, Parabiago, Milano, Italy


Finito di stampare nel mese di marzo 2014


mattioli 1885 g| e |a · 71 v.ortolani,d.berra,e.chiodini,m.granconato...

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