Assessment of Fungal Propagules in Some Selected Banking Halls of the University of Cape Coast Community, Ghana

Abstract

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author SN designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, wrote the protocol, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript and managed literature searches. Authors EA, SN and HN managed the analyses of the study and literature searches. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. ABSTRACT The objective of this project work was to determine the level of fungal propagule contamination and identify specific species of the fungal propagule in some Banking Halls on the University of Cape Coast campus and its environs. Samples were collected in petri dishes containing Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA), to the top, middle and bottom parts of the banking halls. The results showed that in all the banks, the bottom part was the most contaminated, followed by the middle and the top being the least contaminated. Banks A, B, C and D recorded fungal loads of 11 cfu/ml, 67 cfu/ml, 58 cfu/ml and 75 cfu/ml respectively, which were in accordance to the sizes of the Banks. In all, six different fungal species were identified with varied percentage frequency of occurrence, which included: Aspergillus , Aspergillus , Aspergillus , , Rhizopus and present in Banks B, C and D and Penicillium spp. was present in only Banks C and D. Preliminary study showed that out-door fungal concentration was high than all indoor values recorded and this was due to the exo-genal fungal out-door. P-value data was analyzed descriptively using graphic pad prism (version 5), one-way analysis of variance was used to determine significance where (p ≤ 0.05) is significant whilst (p ≥ 0.05) is not significant. Only in bank D was there a significant p-value recorded for Fusarium chlamydosporum (p ≤ 0.001) . The research concluded that, there was fungal propagule in the Banking Halls, which poses health problems to their workers and patrons over a period of time.