The Succession and Prevalence of Pathogenic Fungi in Horse Dung

Abstract

The process of fungal succession in horse dung began with the Zygomycetes which included species of Pilaria occurring in the first three days of incubation. This was followed by Pilobolus sp from day 7 to day 21 after which Rhizopus started sporulating from day 14 to day 28. No Ascomycetes was recorded, probably due to hyphal antagonism by some species of Coprinus, a Basidiomycetes that sporulated until the dung decomposed. The prevalence of pathogenic fungi was investigated in 12 dung samples collected. A total of 8 isolates of medically important fungi were recovered from three batches. Total mean fungal counts of 165, 18 and 38 x 10⁷cfu/g were obtained in batches A, B and C, respectively. Among the isolates that prevailed in horse dung in the batcheswere Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida sp, Rhizopus sp., Fusarium sp., Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium chrysogenum, Paecilomyces and Aspergillus flavus. The data analysis showed that there was significant difference at P<0.05 in isolation frequency of the means from each batch of dung samples collected from horse stables.