Identification and prevalence of culturable mesophilic microfungi in house dust from 100 Danish homes. Comparison between airborne and dust-bound fungi.

In order to encircle possible allergen sources, fungi from house dust were cultivated and identified. Dust from vacuum cleaners was inoculated on Petri dishes containing V-8 agar with addition of penicillin and streptomycin to eliminate the bacterial flora. The number of genera identified were for the most part consistent with the genera trapped from the air. However, presumably owing to their dispersal biology it was demonstrated that members of Mucorales were much more frequently represented in the samples obtained by this method compared with gravimetric and volumetric measurements. The method is recommended as a simple way to demonstrate and identify the mould contents in house dust and as a tool for the identification of some of the real allergenic sources in house dust.