Fungal flora of poultry feedstuff ingredients.

One hundred and ten samples representing five types of poultry feed ingredients were mycologically examined. These samples included soybean meal, ground maize, cotton-seed cake, wheat bran and fish meal (22 samples each). Among the 73 mesophilic fungal species, Aspergillus flavus, A. niger and A. fumigatus were the most dominant. A. terreus, A. flavipes, Mucor circinelloides, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, Penicillium chrysogenum, Fusarium moniliforme and Rhizopus stolonifer were found to be common on a particular ingredient and less common on the remainders. Of the twelve thermophilic and thermotolerant species, A. fumigatus, Thermomyces lanuginosus, Rhizomucor pusillus and Thermoascus thermophilus prevailed on one or more type of the different ingredients. Marked variations were observed in the rancid fatty compounds of the different samples and the values ranged between 0.663 and 3.900 mg malonaldehyde per kg sample.