The Gypsy Moth Caterpillar: A Significant New Occupational and Public Health Problem

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Abstract
Seventeen workers in a laboratory where research with the gypsy moth L. dispar was being performed were subjected to a questionnaire and to skin tests to clarify the extent of allergy-like reactions in these workers. Ten of 17 reported dermatologic and/or pulmonary reactions associated with exposure to the caterpillar. Of the subjects with reactions 7 (70%) had reactions to allergens in the past. When all the workers were skin tested with various extracts, there was a strong relationship between reactions to the skin tests and clinical symptoms. The documentation of this problem helps to explain the outbreak of cutaneous reactions seen in the general population during the massive gypsy moth outbreak in spring 1981 in the northeast [USA].

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