Two distinct reservoirs of mycotoxins exist in fungal-infected cereal grains--the fungal spores and the spore-free mycelium-substrate matrix. Many fungal spores are of respirable size and the mycelium-substrate matrix can be pulverized to form particles of respirable size during routine handling of grain. In order to determine the contribution of each source to the level of mycotoxin contaminat...

Airborne fungal samples were collected on a monthly basis for 10 years, from 1995 to 2005, at a tertiary university hospital. Paired samples were cultured at 25 and 37 degrees C. Data were interpreted according to the air filtration systems serving each location. Samples cultured at 37 degrees C from the patient care areas had a mean recovery of 18% of the mean recovery from outdoor air (22 ver...

background solid organ transplantation patients are at high risk for opportunistic air-borne fungal infections due to using the potent immunosuppressive agents. objectives the current study aimed to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the fungal flora present in the air of kidney transplant unit of baqiyatallah hospital. materials and methods in this prospective study, air samples from pa...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Fungal spores are ubiquitously present in indoor and outdoor air. A number can act as aeroallergens in Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-sensitized individuals and some thermotolerant fungi germinate in the lung where they can cause a combined allergic and infective stimulus leading to a number of clinical presentations characterized by evidence of lung damage. We discuss which biomarker...

An improved viable counting technique was developed to facilitate study of the heat resistance of fungal spores. Spores were heated and subsequently incubated in the same medium. After germination, hyphae and germ tubes were stained with lactofuchsin, and the germinated spores were counted with the aid of a microscope. A number of xerophilic strains were examined, mostly isolates from spoiled h...

The concentration of airborne Didymella spores has been investigated at two monitoring sites situated along the west-south transect in Poland (Szczecin, Kraków), i.e. from a height of 100 to 219 m, respectively, above sea level. The aerobiological monitoring of fungal spores was performed by means of two Lanzoni volumetric spore traps. The high Didymella spore numbers were observed at both citi...

This study was conducted by trapping airborne fungal spores inside and outside 15 residences in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, monthly from December 199 1 to September 1993. The dominant fungal propagules recorded indoors were Cludosporium (38.8%),Aspergillus/Penicillium (1 9.8%), Leptosphaeria (7.9%), unidentified basidiospores (6.5%), unidentified ascospores (2.8%), Ganoderma (2.6%), Al...

Chalkbrood in honeybees (Apis mellifera L. Himenoptera: Apidae) is a fungal disease caused by Ascosphaera apis (Maassen ex Claussen) Olive and Spiltoir. This disease requires the presence of fungal spores and a predisposing condition in the susceptible brood for the disease to develop. In this study we examined the role of pollen in the development of chalkbrood disease under two experimental c...

OBJECTIVES The importance of airborne fungal and other spores in provoking asthma attacks is uncertain. Panel studies have generated evidence that suggests a link between outdoor spore counts and severity of asthma. There have been no population based time series studies relating outdoor exposure to spores with incidence of attacks of asthma. METHODS Outcomes were hospital admissions for asth...

A universal method for the complete assessment of atmospheric fungal spores does not exist, which is continuous, volumetric and non-selective, and offers at the same time reliable identification of the collected spores. To perform a survey of airborne fungal spores, a choice has to be made between a viable and non-viable method. For the study carried out in Leiden, the non-viable, continuous vo...