Author: jscott

Bulk samples In the laboratory, a semiquantitative fungal culture of a bulk sample is generally carried out by aseptically taking tiny shavings from the specimen and sprinkling them over the surface of a Petri dish filled with growth medium. Alternatively, a swab may be used in the laboratory to recover any loose debris from the […]

Solid or so-called “bulk” materials, such as wood, carpet, and other insoluble, solid items, can be evaluated by quantitative fungal culture to determine their culturable fungal content. All or a portion of the specimen is weighed, placed in a buffer solution and vigorously agitated to suspend adherent spores or vegetative hyphae. Aliquots of suspension are […]

Serious infections caused by filamentous or dimorphic fungi are rare in immunologically normal people and normally only caused by one of several pathogenic species. In people with varying degrees of immune dysfunction, however, serious fungal infections are common, and may be caused by a much larger set of fungi many of which are not pathogenic […]

Culture-dependent air sampling remains a mainstay of fungal air sampling. Culture-based methods involve the collection of airborne particles by impaction or centrifugation on the surface of a growth medium. The airborne burden of culturable fungi is then extrapolated based on the colony counts obtained after incubation of the sampled media. Culturable air sampling results are […]

The WallChek sampler is a minimally invasive way to test wall cavities for the presence of fungal contamination. The device consists of an Air-O-Cell® sampling cassette outfitted with a 50 cm sampling tube 2.5 cm in diameter attached to the slit face of the impactor. A hole is drilled into the wall assembly to be […]