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. |
