Abstract

Mycoflora survey in feed permits estimation of the feed deterioration and the risk of mycotoxin contamination. Fusarium species are one of the noticeable fungal in Iran and their toxigenic ability is a health hazard for both animals and humans. In this work, we took samples from five provinces of Iran. We isolated the endogenous fungi using the Freeze blotter technique and separated exogenous fungi implementing the method of flotation with dichloran-chloramphenicol agar (DCPA) and Malachite green agar (MGA). Also, we used PCR assays and the sequencing of TEF1-alpha gene (Translation Elongation Factor 1-alpha) to recognize the Fusarium species in isolates from various areas of Iran. Mycological analyses showed the percentage of fungal species including Aspergillus spp. (26.5), Fusarium spp. (19.6), Penicillium spp. (17), Mucor spp. (3.2), Rhizopus spp. (1.4), Alternaria spp. (1.8), and Cladosporium spp. (4). Fusarium verticillioides were the most common species (70.3 of Fusarium isolates and 13.8 of the whole isolations), and the highest incidence was in Qazvin with 22.5.