Incidence of post-harvest disease and airborne fungal spores in a vegetable market

Abstract

Incidence of post-harvest disease and airborne fungal spores in a vegetable marketThe sampling of bioaerosols has been carried out using a Rotorod sampler as well as by exposing culture plates. The screening of some common vegetables was also done for the isolation of fungi as market pathogens to study post-harvest diseases. Altogether, fifty nine fungal spore types and 78 species of 33 genera belonging to different groups were recorded respectively on the rotorod strips and on exposed Petri dishes. Many saprophytic and pathogenic fungi were found to be associated with sampled vegetables from the market. In all forty-six fungal species belonging to 26 genera were recovered from five varieties of vegetables collected from the samemarket. The most dominant forms of fungi were ofAspergillusfollowed byCladosporium, Penicillium, Alternaria, Fusarium, Curvularia, Trichoderma, andRhizopus. Aspergillus niger, A.flavus, A. fumigatus, Penicillium spp.andCladosporium herbarum, found to be dominant during the period of investigation. Important mycotoxin-producing fungi such asA. flavus, A. fumigatusandFusarium moniliformewere isolated from the vegetables collected from the market.