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This study is the first mycological evaluation of bat guano and the air around it in Harmanecká and Driny Caves in Slovakia. These caves are the most important underground localities of bats in Slovakia. Samples were collected in July 2014 and cultivated for fungi. Harmanecká Cave had seven species of filamentous fungi and one yeast-like fungus isolated from bat guano, compared to six species of filamentous fungi in guano from Driny Cave. Air samples from Harmanecká Cave had twelve species of fungi, compared to nine species from Driny Cave. Fungal density was higher in guano from Driny Cave (4720.1 CFU/g guano) than from Harmanecká Cave (3498.3 CFU/g). The pattern was reversed with fungi from the air. Fungal density in air from Harmanecká Cave (211.3 CFU/m 3 ) was higher than that from Driny Cave (175.7 CFU/m 3 ). Penicillium granulatum was the most frequently isolated fungal species, except in the guano of Driny Cave, where Mucor hiemalis was most common. Bat guano is a very good substrate for the development and survival of fungi in the caves, and it can be a reservoir of fungi harmful for bats. However, air samples from both caves contained more species of fungi than the bat guano, because the majority of fungi are transferred to underground ecosystems with air bioaerosols from the external environment.

Milk somatic cell count is a key component of national and international regulation for milk quality and an indicator of udder health and of the prevalence of clinical and subclinical mastitis in dairy herds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of mastitis pathogens in milk samples differed by somatic cell count (SCC) in microbiologically positive samples. Also frequency of distribution of samples differed by SCC were studied in non infected samples as well. The milk samples were collected from individual quarters from the dairy farms located in Nitra region with problematic udder health of herd for SCC and bacteriological analysis. Totally, 390 milk samples were examined, and 288 (73.85%) positive milk samples were detected. Four SCC groups of samples (<100, <100<SCC<200, <200<SCC<400 and >400×103/ml) were used to identify presence of microorganisms in positive samples. The most frequently isolated pathogens in samples with high SCC >400×103/ml according to year were Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (29.11 %) in 2012, followed by Staphylococcus aureus (28.0%) in 2010, yeasts (24.05%) in 2012, Escherichia coli (22.78%) in 2012, Bacillus sp. (20%) in 2010 and Pseudomonas aerugenosa (11.88%) in 2011. Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (66.67%) were the predominantly identified in the samples with low SCC <100×103 cells/ml, followed by Bacillus spp (50%), Entrococcus spp. (33.33%) and Staphylococcus aureus (16.67%) and E. coli (16.67%). The results of this study indicated that the SCC of individual milk samples corresponded with the health status of the udder of dairy cows represented by presence of mastitis microorganisms in milk. However, the contamination of milk samples could be also connected with low SCC. On the ohter side the samples with high SCC were found out without presence of microorganism. The further study is needed to identify the reason of high SCC in milk from negative samples.