Mycological investigations regarding the dominant flora from the vegetal substrates harvested from N-E Romania

Abstract

The research aimed to evaluate the fungal potential of plant substrates that frequently enter the food of animals and humans through a mycological screening of collected samples that characterize N-E Romania. Samples such as alfalfa semi-hay, corn silo, mixed feed ration, concentrates, corn grains were randomly collected from agricultural or zootechnical farms and a series of 30 determinations/sample were performed, in in order to establish the fungal load during the experimental period. The double agar serial dilution technique and bacterial inhibitors were used to establish the number of colony-forming units, with an emphasis on the isolation, identification and characterization of micromycete species, in view of their taxonomic classification. Following the study, it was shown that the dominant fungal flora that characterizes the plant substrates in N-E Romania belongs to the genera Penicillium (99.9%), Fusarium (89.6%) and Aspergillus (73%), the most contaminated samples being represented by the corn silo and the corn grains. The climatic conditions in this geographical area are favorable for these species of micromycetes, they develop a vigorous vegetative apparatus with a phenotypic expression difficult to confuse and easy to frame taxonomically.