Open Access

Zdenek Hubalek

• Over 6260 fungi have been isolated from samples of feathers, nests, pellets, droppings, cloaca contents and visceral organs of 92 species of free-living birds in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Several species have been obtained of fungi pathogenic to homeotherms, poikilotherms and plants, and many fungi recorded belong to the toxinogenic species.Cellulolytic fungi have participated with 44.3 % in the total number of fungi, and keratinolytic fungi with 18.3 %. The thesis has been confirmed that habits (specific bionomics) of the birds influence,. to a certain degree, the distribution of the fungi among them. According to the results of this study, the fungi may conveniently be divided into three categories with respect to the character of their distribution and dispersal by free-living birds: (1) euryornithochous fungi , the occurrence of which in birds is undetermined by the birds' habits (ubiqitous species: Aspergillus flavus, Gliocladium roseum, Rhizopus. nigricans, Trichothecium roseum); (2) mesoornitohochorous fungi, the occurrence of which in birds is determined to a certain degree by the birds' habits (e. g., Aphanoascus fulvescens, Arthrodermcr curreyi, Chrysosporium keratinophilum, C. tropicum, Mucor hiemalis); (3) stenoornithochoruss fungi, which are associated with certain habit groups of the birds only (e. g., Aphanoascus terreus, Arthroderma ciferrii, A. tuberculatum,.Aspergillus fumigatus, Chrysosporium pannorum, Ctenomyces serratus). The importance of free-living birds in the spreading of pathogenic organisms has also been discussed from a more general point of view, particularly with regard to several epidemiologically important aspects of bird ecology such as synanthropism, migration (making possible a long-range carriage of pathogens or infected vectors), colonial breeding or mass roosting.