This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Sanitary and hygienic approaches to fungal contamination assessment in livestock production facilities
1 Ufa Research Institute of Occupational Medicine and Human Ecology, Ufa, Russia
2 Bashkir State Medical University, Ufa, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed: Liliya G. Gizatullina
Kuvykina, 94, Ufa, 450106, Russia; ur.liam@afu.tytitsni
Author contribution: Masyagutova LM — review of papers on the topic, literature analysis, data synthesis; Gizatullina LG — sampling for bacteriological analysis, testing, analysis of the results; Bakirov AB — data synthesis, editing; Kalimullina SN — testing, data acquisition and processing; Kabirova EF — data processing; all authors — approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article.
Intensification of livestock farming creates conditions for the accumulation and circulation of pathogenic and opportunistic fungi with the development of antifungal resistance. The study aimed to perform comprehensive assessment of fungal contamination of production environment in various areas of livestock farms and determine sensitivity of the extracted isolates to common antifungal agent. The presence of fungal contamination in the air of all working areas of the studied production facility was established. Predominance of Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans was revealed. In 50% of cases, mixed contamination with different types of mold fungi was observed. The highest contamination levels were reported for the bedding material. Resistance of microorganisms to several antifungal drugs with different mechanisms of action at once has been revealed. The study confirmed systemic contamination of the livestock complex production environment with potentially pathogenic fungi forming stable communities in feed and bedding. The reported sanitary and microbiological approaches to assessing fungal contamination at livestock production facilities have a pronounced comprehensive preventive focus, which makes it possible to improve the farm employees’ working conditions, as well as provide measures to improve the livestock complex production environment.
Keywords: livestock production, production environment, antifungals, yeast-like fungi isolates, sensitivity, working area