Aspergillus genera fungal contamination in a Portuguese composting plant

• Author(s): Viegas, Carla ; Sabino, Raquel
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/3220
• Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa
• Subject(s): Fungal contamination; Aspergillus genus; Composting plant
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Fungal contamination in composting facilities has been associated with increased respiratory and skin pathologies among compost workers. In this study we aim to characterize the fungal contamination caused by Aspergillus genera within a totally indoor composting plant located in Portugal. Air samples of 50L were collected from 6 sampling sites through an impaction method. Surfaces samples were collected by swabbing the surfaces of the same indoor sites. Pre-treatment and waste screw were the sampling sites of the analyzed composting plant with the highest Aspergillus load in the air. Globally, the genus Aspergillus presented the highest prevalence both in the air from (90.6%), and surfaces from the same sampling sites (60.8%). The results obtained in this study claim the attention to the need of further research regarding the fungal contamination dur to Aspergillus genus in composting plants.