Abstract
Dust in poultry confinement facilities were investigated for their fungi and mycotoxins contents. Concentrations of microfungiin the air of poultry confinement facilities were determined using air samplers, and fungal isolation from airby plate exposure. Settled dusts were investigated for their fungal load, types of fungi present and mycotoxins present.Microfungal load in settled dust and air of poultry confinements were found to be 3.5-42 x 106 cfu/g and 5-119 x105 cfu/m3 respectively. Fungi isolated from poultry confinements were: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus,Aspergillus parasiticus, Aspergillus ochraceus Penicillium notatum, Mucor racemosus, Penicillium oxalicum, Trichodermaviride, Stachybotrys atra, Fusarium oxysporum, Candida albicans, Cryptococus neoformans and Saccharomyces cerevisae.Mycotoxins concentrations obtained from the analyses of sieved poultry dust were 21.32 + 2.35 ppb of aflatoxins,11.26 + 1.78 ppb of ochratoxins and 4.10 + 0.13 ppb of fumonisins. Aflatoxin concentrations and fungal loads in settleddust showed positive correlation with duration of dust deposition, but the former produced stronger association than thelatter (r = +0.991, P < 0.001 and r = +0.957, P < 0.02 respectively). Results obtained in this study indicate that poultrydust is rich in mirofungi and mycotoxins which could be of occupational health importance.
Highlights
Fungi affect human and animal well beings in variety of ways, such as diseases of essential crop plants, decay of stored foods with possible concomitant production of mycotoxins, superficial and systemic infections of both human and animal tissues
Investigations were carried out for the presence of aflatoxin, ochratoxins and fumonisins in settled poultry dusts, by methods described by AOAC [15]
Aflatoxin and ochratoxin tests by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA): The concentration of aflatoxin in compounded feed samples were determined by a direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), using the Agra Quant® Total Aflatoxin Assay 4/40 Kits (Romer Laboratory Inc., Singapore)
Summary
Fungi affect human and animal well beings in variety of ways, such as diseases of essential crop plants, decay of stored foods with possible concomitant production of mycotoxins, superficial and systemic infections of both human and animal tissues. The spores of a large number of important fungi are less than 5 μm-aerodynamic diameters and are able to enter the lungs. They may contain significant amount of mycotoxis. Diseases associated with inhalation of fungal spores include toxic pneumonitis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, tremors, chronic fatigue syndrome, kidney failure and cancer [1]. Other toxigenic fungi include Stachybotris atra and the species of Alternaria, Paecilomyces, Trichoderma and Trichothecium. All of these fungi occur commonly in soil, agriculture products, grain dust and house dust [2]
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