title: Size-selective assessment of agricultural workers' personal exposure to airborne fungi and fungal fragments.
abstract: Fungi are ubiquitous agents that cause human respiratory diseases. Very few studies have size-selectively assessed farmers' exposure to fungi and fungal fragments in agricultural settings. In this study, a two-stage bio-aerosol cyclone personal sampler was employed to collect airborne fungi and fungal fragments size-selectively at corn, swine, poultry, and mushroom farms. The collected air samples were analyzed for culturable fungi, fungal spores, viable fungi and (1 → 3)-β-D-glucan. The results show that the median concentrations ranged from 3.2 × 10(5) to 1.3 × 10(8)spores/m(3) for total fungal spores, from 1.3 × 10(5) to 5.1 × 10(7)spores/m(3) for total viable fungi, from 1.9 × 10(3) to 1.5 × 10(7)CFU/m(3) for total culturable fungi, and from 4.3 × 10(3) to 2.4 × 10(6)pg/m(3) for total (1 → 3)-β-D-glucan. The aerodynamic sizes of most of the collected fungal contaminants were larger than 1.8 μm. Total (1 → 3)-β-D-glucan significantly correlated with total fungal spores (r = 0.65, p < 0.001), total viable fungi (r = 0.68, p < 0.001) and total culturable fungi (r = 0.72, p < 0.001). Total (1 → 3)-β-D-glucan significantly correlated with Aspergillus/Penicillium, Alternaria, and Cladosporium. Alternaria and Botrytis were also found to highly correlate with (1 → 3)-β-D-glucan at the size <1 μm, which was less than the expected spore sizes (the mean measured aerodynamic sizes were 18.5 μm for Alternaria and 6.1 μm for Botrytis); therefore, Alternaria and Botrytis might release small fragments that could enter the deep lung and cause respiratory diseases.
authors: Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, No. 100, Wenhwa Rd., Seatwen, Taichung 40724, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: salee@fcu.edu.tw.
authors: Shu-An
authors: SA
authors: Lee
authors: Chien-Hua
authors: CH
authors: Liao
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000032:analysis; D000383:Agriculture; D000391:Air Microbiology; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005658:Fungi / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010316:Particle Size; D011509:Proteoglycans; D012016:Reference Values; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013624:Taiwan; D047071:beta-Glucans / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D011509:Proteoglycans; D047071:beta-Glucans; C010770:polysaccharide-K
keywords: (1→3)-β-d-glucan; Agricultural farms; Fungal fragments; Fungi; Size