Prevalence of airborne fungal spores in two potato warehouses with different storage conditions
2021
Meno, Laura | Escuredo, Olga | Rodríguez-Flores, Maria Shantal | Seijo, Maria Carmen
Potatoes production is the main source of income in A Limia (Northwest Spain). Most of the potatoes harvest is stored in piles in farmer´s warehouses without systems to control temperature and relative humidity and only a few industries have storage facilities with cooling systems. This study constitutes an approach to detecting fungal spores present inside potato warehouses and the influence of the environmental conditions on the prevalence of the different types of fungi. The most common spores were Cladosporium and Aspergillus/Penicillium representing more than 94% of the identified spores of fungi. However, some potential fungal potato pathogens such as Alternaria, Helminthosporium, Fusarium and Phytophthora were also detected. In the warehouse without control of the storage conditions, the most represented fungal spores were from Cladosporium followed by Aspergillus/Penicillium, Helminthosporium and Alternaria whereas during storage with cooling conditions, the most abundant were Aspergillus/Penicillium, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Helminthosporium and Leptosphaeria. The results showed a close relationship between the storage conditions and the levels of some identified fungi. The low representation of pathogenic fungi Alternaria and Helminthosporium stood out in the facilities with cooling systems. Monitoring of airborne elements during potato storage could be useful tool for detecting the presence of potato pathogens in the environment and taking management decisions to avoid economic losses.
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