Survey of viable airborne fungal propagules in French wine cellars

A study was carried out of the viable airborne mycological flora of 12 wine cellars in the Arbois region in France. Results show that there were considerable variations in the quantities of propagules: from 57 to 2547 CFU m super(-3). There was a relatively large number of species (48), which are more frequently recovered from certain cellar types. The most common were Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Aspergillus versicolor, A. restrictus, Penicillium glabrum, P. dierckxii, P. implicatum and P. brevicompactum. So the risk of allergies subsequent to inhalation of large quantities of spores is far from minimal.