SummaryA survey of the prevalence of laboratory animal allergy to rats, mice, guinea pigs and rabbits among sixty‐nine animal workers and 308 other subjects on a pharmaceutical research site revealed a 22 prevalence of laboratory animal allergy among the animal workers. The overall prevalence of atopy was 67 in persons with allergy to laboratory animals. This was significantly greater than the 31 prevalence in other animal workers. Skin‐prick tests and specific IgG and IgE assays to urinary protein extracts strongly correlated with the occurrence of laboratory‐animal allergy and would appear to have diagnostic value. However, a number of clinically diagnosed laboratory‐ani‐mal‐allergy subjects gave no evidence of immunological response to the urinary allergens and wider diagnoses may have to be applied in
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