Isolation of fungi associated with dead-in-shell chick embryo in hatcheries

Abstract

The present work was carried out to isolate and identify fungi species present in dead-in-shell chick embryo. A total of three thousand dead-in-shell embryonated chicken eggs pooled into 300 eggs (10 eggs per group) were collected from the four hatcheries over a period of six months. The contents of the pooled eggs were inoculated onto Sabourauds Dextrose Agar (SDA) and Corn Meal Agar (CMA) slants. Out of the 300 groups of pooled eggs a total of 60 (20.00%) fungi isolates of belonging to 5 genera viz Candida, Mucour, Rhizopus, Curvularia and Penicillium making up 48.33% (29), 18.33% (11), 13.33% (8), 11.67% (7), and 8.33% (5) respectively of the fungi isolate respectively. The presence of these fungi gives an indication of the level of contamination and sanitary conditions of the hatcheries. It also indicates that fungi be a primary or secondary contributor to the embryonic mortality (dead-in-shell).