BACKGROUND Airborne fungi are responsible for the majority of fungal infections in humans and animals. Outdoor air markedly influences the prevalence of fungal spore levels in indoor air and thus, it is the major source of fungal infections in indoor environments especially in hospitalized individuals. METHODS Using a settle plate method, air sampling (1092 air samples from 93 sampling sites ...

Mycotoxins (ie toxins produced by molds) are fungal metabolites that can contaminate foods and feeds and cause toxic effects in higher organisms that consume the contaminated commodities. Therefore, mycotoxin contamination of foods and feeds results is a serious food safety issue and affects the competitiveness of US agriculture in both domestic and export markets. This article highlights resea...

Asthma prevalence has increased progressively over the past three decades in the UK. Numerous theories have been promulgated including the hygiene hypothesis, additional exposure to house dust mite etc., none of which have been substantiated on detailed study. An association with fungal exposure is less well studied. It is often assumed that such exposures generally occur outside, apart from mo...

The research deals with the contamination of feeding crops with fungi, producing mycotoxins and use of selected yeasts for detoxification. The thin-layer chromatography and ELISA methods were applied for the analysis of fungal secondary metabolites. The results showed a high rate of the grain contamination with fungi, mainly from genera Penicillium, Fusarium, Aspergillus and Alternaria. Some of...

The use of filamentous fungi in bioremediation of heavy metal contamination has been developed recently. This research aims to observe the capability of filamentous fungi isolated from forest soil for bioremediation of mercury contamination in a substrate. Six fungal strains were selected based on their capability to grow in 25 mg/L Hg(2+)-contaminated potato dextrose agar plates. Fungal strain...