Mycoflora of air‐conditioners dust from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Using the hair baiting technique, 6 genera and 14 species were collected on Sabouraud's dextrose agar from 37 dust samples from air-conditioners. The most common fungi were Chrysosporium tropicum, C. indicum, C. keratinophilum, Aspergillus flavus followed by Acremonium strictum and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis. Using the dilution-plate method, 26 genera and 52 species were collected from 37 dust samples on glucose-(23 genera and 45 species) and cellulose-(18 genera and 34 species) Czapek's agar at 28 degrees C. The most prevalent species were Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum, Stachybotrys chartarum, Ulocladium atrum, Mucor racemosus and Fusarium solani and A. niger, A. flavus, Trichoderma viride, P. chrysogenum, Ulocladium atrum, Chaetomium globosum, C. spirale, Stachybotrys chartarum and Mucor racemosus on the two media, respectively.

Mycoflora of Animal and Human Hairs from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

“…Species of Trichophyton and Microsporum were also reported as keratinophilic species from soil, house dust and dust from school (Nigam and Kushwaha, 1990;Ali-Shtayeh and Arda, 1989;Ali-Shtayeh and Al-Sheikh 1988). Other species isolated here were also reported earlier as keratin degrading fungi (Bagy and Gohar, 1988;Abdel-Mallek et al, 1988;Abdel-Hafez et al, 1990). Aspergillus flavus (green mould) which are commonly found in almost all types of environment and considered to be harmless mould, was becoming a big killer of patient's with AIDS, those having organ transplant and other who had weekened immune systems (Saudi Gazette, 1996).…”

“…Epidemilogical studies that earlier carried out were aimed at defining the relationships between the above mentioned fungi and the environment like from soils (Marsella and Mercantini, 1986;Nigam and Kushwaha, 1990), air dust (Abdel-Hafez et al, 1989), schools (Morganti and Tampieri, 1985;Abdel-Mallek et al, 1988), public parks (Morganti and Tampieri, 1985), Zoos (Marsella et al, 1985) and also from household environments (Bokhary and Parvez, 1995). In Saudi Arabia, some work have been done on keratinophilic fungi (Bagy and Gohar, 1988) but main work have been concentrated on the distribution of dermatophytes and other human pathogenic fungi (El-Hams, 1989;Al-Sogair et al, 1989;Abdel-Fattah et al, 1972). No work so far has been done on to isolate fungi from animal hairs.…”

Zygomycetes in Human Disease

“…Rhizopus spores have been identified both in house dust and from air plates placed in kitchen sites, notably consistent with this mold's status as "bread mold" (51). Spores from R. arrhizus (151,335), R. stolonifer (27,51,125,333), and R. microsporus (51) have all been collected from air samples or dust collected from air conditioning systems. Rhizopus spp.…”

“…The spores from asexual reproduction are easily airborne and may be demonstrated during sampling of both outdoor and indoor air (27,51,107,265,329). The small sporangiospore size (mean size, 6.6 m) allows easy dissemination by the airborne route.…”

Molecular systematics in the genus Mucor with special regards to species encountered in cheese

“…They are found in environmental samples such as soil (Farrow 1954;Pandey et al 1990;Domsch et al 2007), air, and dust (Bagy & Gohar 1988;Bokhary & Parvez 1995). Several species of Mucor are known to cause diseases (Medoff & Kobayashi 1972;Oliver et al 1996;de Hoog et al 2000) as they can colonize animal and human tissues.…”