A random swabs from frozen meat, fish and chicken meat (total=45, n=15 of each), walls and air of cold
stores (n=45 per each) in Kalyobia governorate were subjected to mycological examination and
determination of the ability of aflatoxins production by isolated molds. The obtained results declared
that the mean total mold counts in the examined swabs of meat, fish and chicken meat (cfu/cm2
) were
1.12±0.29×105
, 5.81±0.97×104 & 9.37±2.65×103
for a cold store. The total mold count (cfu/cm2
) were
varied from 3.0×103 to 5.4×105 with an average of 2.61±0.37×105
for the meat cold store walls, 3.0×103
to 2.0×105 with an average of 6.75±1.14×104
for fish cold store walls and 1.0×103
to 1.6×105 with an
average of 2.58±0.49×104
for chicken meat cold store walls. Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Fusarium,
Mucor, Nigrospora, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Sporotricum, Thamnidium and Tricoderma species were
isolated and identified from the examined swabs of meat, fish and chicken meat as well as walls and air
of cold store with different percentages. Also, genus Aspergillus (A.) was further identified as A. flavus,
A. fumigatus, A. nigar, A. ochraceus, A. terreus and A. vesicolor were recovered from examined swabs
with varying percentages. The average concentrations of aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 (µg/1) extracted
from toxigenic strains of A. flavus isolated from examined swabs of cold store were 63.27±3.15%,
31.85±1.73, 35.78±1.98 & 18.62±1.03 for meat, 50.61±2.72, 22.48±1.19, 27.06±1.54 & 11.97±0.75 for
fish and 37.46±1.95, 16.35±0.88, 21.70±1.10 & 8.64±0.59 for chicken meat, respectively. The public
health significance of the isolated mold species and the probable sources of refrigerated meat with such
serious organisms as well as some recommendation to prevent them to grow and/or produce their
aflatoxins were discussed.
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