Conference paper

Frequencies of Airborne Moulds in Zagreb

Maja Šegvić
Stjepan Pepeljnjak

Abstract

Airborne fungi are sometimes associated with several respiratory diseases and allergies. This paper describes a study of qualitative and quantitative variations in the occurrence of airborne moulds in Zagreb area on three locations: centre of the city (C), Pharmaceutical Botanical Garden “Fran Kušan” (BG) and the mountain Medvednica (M) during autumn, winter, spring and summer 2002-03. Lower concentrations of airborne moulds were found in all three locations in autumn (up to 76.88 CFU/m3) and winter (31.46 CFU/m3), with significantly higher levels in C and BG than in M (P<0.001). In spring and summer, these concentrations were much higher in all sampling sites and were significantly higher in C (160.00 CFU/m3) and BG (134.00 CFU/m3) in spring than in M (90.07 CFU/m3) (P<0.001). In summer, significantly higher concentration was found in C (237.5 CFU/m3) than in BG (186.50 CFU/m3) (P<0.01), while concentrations in C and M (216.70 CFU/m3) were similar. Airspora belonging to 29 fungal genera were identified, and allergologicaly significant moulds, Cladosporium (up to 79.5 %) and Alternaria (up to 59.4 %) dominated in all sampling sites. Penicillium, Fusarium and Aspergillus were also constant fungal entities (43.0-70.5 %), but in much lower concentrations than Cladosporium and Alternaria. Airsporas of Cladosporium and Alternaria were more frequent in spring and summer in all locations, with significantly higher concentrations in C and BG (P<0.05). The risk from allergies increases with higher airspora concentrations in spring and summer due to an increase in Cladosporium and Alternaria.

Keywords

airspora; allergies; Alternaria; Cladosporium; seasonal and locational variations

Hrčak ID:

306

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/306

Publication date:

14.6.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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