Fungicidal activity of biocides against fungal isolates

A new paper of interest has been published: “In vitro fungicidal activity of biocides against pharmaceutical environmental fungal isolates”.

The paper has been written by T. Sandle, R. Vijayakumar, M. Saleh Al Aboody and S. Saravanakumar and it has been published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology.

The abstract states:

Aims: To determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of a range of cleanroom fungi against three disinfectants common to the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors: biguanide (chlorhexidine) and two quaternary ammonium compounds (benzalkonium chloride and cetrimide).

Methods and Results: The in vitro fungicidal activities of the three biocides were studied against 112 cleanroom fungal isolates using broth microdilution technique (CLSI M38-A2 standard).

Conclusions: Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for all three biocides against hyaline fungi showed results of not more than 16 lg ml^-1. Alternaria showed <32 lg ml^-1 and other dematiaceous fungi reported that 8–16 lg ml^-1 for biguanides and QACs. This study clearly demonstrates that the most frequently isolated micro-organisms from an environmental monitoring programme may be periodically subjected to broth microdilution testing with cleanroom disinfectant agents used in the disinfection programme confirm their sensitivity profile.

Significance and Impact of the Study: No large collection of data exists on the activity of biocides on pharmaceutical cleanroom fungal isolates. This is the first study report with large collection of cleanroom fungal isolates tested against common biocides using the broth microdilution antifungal susceptibility testing to determine the MIC value. The data presented support a quality control procedure for cleanroom disinfection.

The reference is:

Sandle, T., Vijayakumar, R., Saleh Al Aboody, M. and Saravanakumar, S. (2014) In vitro fungicidal activity of biocides against pharmaceutical environmental fungal isolates, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 117 (5): 1267 – 1273

For further details, please contact Tim Sandle

Posted by Tim Sandle