This study has as objectives to determine the concentration and diversity of the air- and dustborne mycobiota in seven National Archive of the Republic of Cuba repositories, and to assess the potential risk of biodeterioration that isolated taxa may have. In the indoor and outdoor environmental microbiological samplings a SAS biocollector was used and the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio was determined for each repository. The settled dust was collected during six months. Sørensen's coefficient of similarity (QS) was calculated to compare the isolated taxa among the three studied niches (indoor air, dust, outdoor air). The biodegradation potential of the isolated taxa was determined by semi-quantitative tests. The concentrations in the air of repositories with natural cross-ventilation ranged from 225.2-750.3 CFU m-3, while in the Map library with air-conditioning the concentration was significantly lower. The I/O ratios ranged from 0.1-1.7 revealing different environ- mental qualities. The maximum settled dust load was 22.8 mg/m2/day with a top fungal concentration of 6000 CFU g-1. 14 and eleven genera were detected in the air and dust respectively with predominance of the genera Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium. A QS of 0.8 was obtained between the indoor and the outdoor environments with eleven taxa similar evidencing the incidence of outdoors on the indoor mycobiota. The isolated taxa showed several biodeteriogenic attributes highlighting twelve and 14 taxa from indoor air and dust respectively with positive results for the five tests performed. This demonstrates the potential risk that fungal environmental represent for the preserved documentary heritage.
It has been reported that there is a correlation between indoor airborne fungi and the biodeterioration of valuable documents in archives, libraries and museums, and that these fungi can also cause effects on human health if there are immunological problems or the time of exposure to these environments of low quality is long. The aims of this study were quantifying and characterizing the mycobiota of the indoor air in three repositories of the Provincial Historical Archive of Pinar del Río, Cuba and assessing its impact on the human health. The samplings were made in two different months corresponding to the years 2016 and 2017, one belonging to the rainy season and the other to the season of the little rain using a SAS biocollector and appropriate culture media to isolate fungi. The fungal concentrations and the Indoor/Outdoor (I/O) ratios obtained revealing that the repositories showed good quality environments. In both isolations Cladosporium was the predominant genus followed by Penicillium in the first sampling and Fusarium in the second isolation. The genera Aureobasidium, Sepedonium, Trichaegum and Wallemia were new findings for the Cuban archives. The pathogenic attributes studied showed that 30% of the isolates have spores so small that they can penetrate into the respiratory tract into the alveoli; 10.7% of the taxa obtained in the first isolation and 13.3% of the taxa detected in the second sampling also showed positive results to four virulence tests analyzed "In vitro" (growth at 37°C, hemolytic activity, phospholipase activity and respiratory tract level to which the spores can penetrate). These virulence factors (pathogenic attributes) evidence the risk that environmental fungi represent for the health of personnel in this archive.
Environmental fungi can damage the documentary heritage conserved in archives and affect the personnel’s health if their concentrations, thermohygrometric parameters and ventilation conditions are not adequate, problems that can be accentuated by Climate Change. The aims of this work were to identify and to characterize the airborne fungal pollution of naturally ventilated repositories in the Provincial Historical Archive of Santiago de Cuba and predict the risk that these fungi pose to the staff’s health. Indoor air of three repositories of this archive and the outdoor air were sampled in an occasion every time in 2015, 2016 and 2017 using a SAS sampler. The obtained fungal concentrations varied from 135.6 CFU/m3 to 421.1 CFU/m3 and the indoor/outdoor ratios fluctuated from 0.7 to 4.2, evidencing a variable environmental quality over time, but in the third sampling the repositories environments showed good quality. Aspergillus and Cladosporium were the predominant genera in these environments. A. flavus was a prevailed species in indoor air, while A. niger and Cl. cladosporioides were the species that showed the greatest similarities with the outdoor air. Coremiella and Talaromyces genera as well as the species Aspergillus uvarum, Alternaria ricini and Cladosporium staurophorum were the first findings for environments of Cuban archives. Xerophilic species (A. flavus, A. niger, A. ochraceus, A. ustus) indicators of moisture problems in the repositories were detected; they are also opportunistic pathogens and toxigenic species but their concentrations were higher than the recommended, demonstrating the potential risk to which the archive personnel is exposed in a circumstantial way.
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