Airborne fungi in a library: One-year study

Abstract

This article analyzes the fungi present in a scientific library situated in a microorganism research center in Tucuman, Argentina. The analysis was conducted from February, 2000, to January, 2001. Thirty-three fungal genera, various yeasts, and those two fungi classified as Mycelia sterilia and Basidiomycetes were identified. The genera Cladosporium sp. (30.1%), Fusarium sp (8.6%), Alternaria sp. (8.4%), Acremonium sp. (6.4%) and Aspergillus sp. (5.5%) were predominantly isolated. The maximum number of culturable mold propagules was observed in October and the minimum in July. Overall, the temperature was between 16.5 and 28.5ºC. The genus Cladosporium sp. was found in all months during which sampling were gathered. This fungus predominated in February (19.6%) with Alternaria sp., May (29.6%), June (35.7%), July (33.3%), August (40%), September (27.5%) and October (51.3%) while Acremonium sp. was prominent in March (26.5%), Ceratosporium sp. in April (20.4%) and Basidiomycetes in November (17.6%). Furthermore, Alternaria sp. was the most abundant in December (20%) and January (35.9%). In spite of the use of a nonvolumetric sampler, the study provides useful information on the incidence of airborne fungi in the tested library. As we know that fungal presence is inevitable and difficult to eradicate, future investigations will be needed to examine the effect of human beings´ exposure to these levels of fungi