Nichole Diaz

1 Introduction The prevalence of allergic diseases, including atopic dermatitis (AD), food allergy (FA), asthma, and allergic rhinitis, has dramatically increased over the last half of a century and now affects more than 1 in 4 children in the United States [1]. Genetics play a role in the development of allergic disease; however, the rapid increase in disease rates in a short period of time highlights a role for environmental factors associated with lifestyle modernization.

Editor’s summary Seminal studies have demonstrated that a farming lifestyle, such as that of the Old Order Mennonite (OOM) community, is associated with reduced incidence of allergies; however, the cellular mechanisms behind this association remain unclear. Here, Jackson et al. compared B cell and antibody responses in the blood, saliva, and stools of infants born in an OOM community or in urban and suburban Rochester, NY, USA.

Conflicts of Interest K.M.J. is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number U01AI131344 and R01AI163571. S.U.P., T.K., and B.K. are supported by NIH NIAID awards 1R01AI155630 and 1R01AI182001 and the Food Allergy Science Initiative (FASI). K.M.J. is a consultant for Janssen and Harmony/Milk Care and is an investigator on Aimmune, DBV, and Siolta trials.