In November 2020, a Belgian racing pigeon called New Kim sold at auction for £1.44 million. The record price offered a striking insight into the money, competition and international interest surrounding pigeon fancying.

The breeding and keeping of pigeons for racing or showing is practised worldwide, with particularly valuable European birds attracting buyers from as far away as China. The UK remains one of the sport’s traditional heartlands.

Every January, thousands of fanciers (people who breed birds) travel to Blackpool for the British Homing World Show of the Year. They browse trade stalls, meet friends and admire birds with elaborate head feathers, curled plumage and colours ranging from warm reds to iridescent greens.

Among the prize birds, our research team is there for a different purpose: we collect blood samples from the fanciers.

People who spend many hours around pigeons can develop a condition commonly called pigeon lung, or bird fancier’s lung. It is a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, an immune-related disease in which repeated exposure to certain airborne substances causes inflammation deep inside the lungs.

The triggers are proteins found in bird droppings, feathers and bloom, the fine powder coating a pigeon’s feathers. These proteins can become part of the dust circulating inside a loft, where the birds are kept, and are then inhaled.

Most fanciers never develop the disease. In susceptible people, however, the immune system reacts to the proteins and causes inflammation around the lungs’ tiny air sacs.........

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