Sampling of high concentrations of airborne fungi.

The paper discusses a method developed for determining airborne fungi particles in environments highly contaminated with mold fungi. The collection of airborne fungi was performed with two slit samplers. These sampling devices were found to give the highest values out of the three different types tested simultaneously. After spores had been collected with the slit samplers, the collection medium, an agar gel, was removed from the petri dishes and homogenized in a sterile 0.9% sodium chloride solution. The homogenate was diluted stepwise and spread on agar plates prior to the cultivation and the determination of viable counts. When the homogenization procedure was tested on samples collected from three different work environments, no increase or decrease in the number of colony-forming units could be detected. Storage of the homogenate at 2 degrees C over 9 d did not increase the number of viable fungal colonies.