MYCOLOGICAL QUALITY OF COMMERCIAL HEN'S EGGS

Document Type : Research article

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Abstract

A total of 225 samples of commercial hen's eggs (45 group) were collected randomly from different groceries, and farmers houses in Assiut City supermarkets, and examined to evaluate the mycological quality of both shells and egg contents. The mycological analysis, reveals that 38 (84.44%) and 22 (48.88%) of egg shell and content samples were positive for molds, respectively, with an average counts of 3 x 10°/shell and 4 x 107ml. The identification of molds reveals that, 66 species belonging to 10 genera were isolated from egg shells, while in the egg contents 58 species belonging to 9 genera were identified. Aspergillus was found to be the most prevalent genus recovered from shells and contents in percentages of 63.68% and 51.75%, respectively. Both Cladosporium and Penicillium were constituting 9.09% of egg shell samples, however, Penicillium recovered from egg contents in a percentage of 3.44% while Cladosporium was existed in 15.53%. The infrequent genera were Alternaria, Aphanoascus, Cochliobolus, Fusarium, Epicoccum, Rhizopus and Vlocladium which were isolated from shells, while those recovered from content were Acremonium (A. fusidioides was a new record in Assiut), Alternaria, Drechslera, Fusarium, Mucor and Rhizopus. The public health implications and suggestive measures for improving the hen's eggs quality are discussed.

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