This study was conducted to evaluate mycological contamination of rabbit carcasses, and its hazard on
public health. A total of 100 swab samples were collected from the surfaces of fore and hind
quarters of fresh and frozen rabbit carcasses (25 of each) from different abattoirs for mycological
examination. Mold count of the examined samples of fresh fore and hind quarters ranged from 1.0×102
to 1.5×103 and 1.0×102 to 2.6×103 with mean values of 5.80×102±1.06×102 cfu/cm2and
6.50×102±1.29×102 (cfu/cm2 ), respectively. Also, those frozen fore and hind quarters ranged from
1.0×102 to 2.0×102 and 1.20×102 to 4.0×102 with mean values of 1.20×102±0.17×102(cfu/cm2) and
1.60×102± 0.48×102 (cfu/cm2),respectively. The isolated mold species from rabbit carcasses were
Aspergillus, Mucor, Penicillium, Alternaria, Fusarium, Geotrichum and Scopuloriapsis spp. .
Aspergillus strains were A.flavus, A.fumigatus, A.niger. Moreover, the mean values of aflatoxins (ug/L)
extracted from the toxigenic strains of A. flavus were 41.04± 1.65 (ug/L)for B1, 29.87± 1.26
(ug/L)for B2 , 15.41 ±0.90 (ug/L)for G1 & G2 9.38 ±0.49(ug/L) in fresh fore quarters, and B1 76.85±
3.28(ug/L), B2 57.14± 2.39(ug/L),G1 40.53 ±2.12(ug/L) , G2 19.66 ±1.25(ug/L) in frozen hind
quarter, respectively . Concerning to the mean values of the total yeast count/cm2 in the examined swab
samples of fresh and frozen fore and hind quarters ranged from 3.57×103± 0.84×103
(cfu/cm2),1.81×103±0.25× 103 (cfu/cm2) ,4.33×102± 0.62×102 (cfu/cm2) and 3.86×102±0.58×102
(cfu/cm2), respectively. Candida, Rhodotorula, Sacchromyces and Torulopsis were detected. The
present study concluded that rabbit carcasses and can contribute to mycological risk and contamination
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