Country-living in the city | Nature Reviews Microbiology

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children and multiple factors have been indicated in the development of asthma, including

environmental and host factors. Whereas populations in rural areas have a low risk of asthma, populations in urban environments have a high risk. Indeed, urbanization has been linked to the

increased risk of developing asthma and previous studies have suggested that exposure to farms with animals, in particular increased environmental microbial burden and exposure to

farm-associated microbial communities in house dust, seems to protect children from childhood asthma. Despite the increasing available evidence of an asthma-protective effect of farm-like

indoor dust microbiota, whether similar communities in urban environments have a protective effect was unclear. In this study, Kirjavainen et al. show that the microbiota associated with

farm houses also has a protective effect in non-farm houses as the risk of developing asthma decreases. They went on to develop models for the farm home microbiota, and the models were

applied to data obtained from mostly suburban homes. The results showed that the risk of developing asthma decreases in children who grow up in non-farm homes that exhibit a bacterial

microbiota composition that is similar to that of farm homes. Moreover, the association between the farm-like microbiota and asthma risk was similar between children living on farms and

those who were not. The asthma-protective effect of the farm-like microbiota was confirmed in a cohort of German children growing up in non-farm homes with a farm home-like indoor

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ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES ORIGINAL ARTICLE * Kirjavainen, P. V. et al. Farm-like

indoor microbiota in non-farm homes protects children from asthma development. _Nat. Med_. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0469-4 (2019) Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  FURTHER READING *

Gilbert, J. A. & Stephens, B. Microbiology of the built environment. _Nat. Rev. Microbiol._ 16, 661–670 (2018) Article  CAS  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION

AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Reviews Microbiology http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/ Andrea Du Toit Authors * Andrea Du Toit View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Andrea Du Toit. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Du Toit, A. Country-living

in the city. _Nat Rev Microbiol_ 17, 462–463 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0234-1 Download citation * Published: 28 June 2019 * Issue Date: August 2019 * DOI:

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