The characteristics of fungi contaminating chicken feed in Tegal, Bogor, West Java

Fungi can cause contamination in animal feed. Contamination of the feed may result in damage to feed quality and decrease the health of livestock. The aim of this study was to isolate and identify fungi strains in cage- and warehouse-based chicken feed. Fungal isolates was collected using the dilution plating method. A sample was taken from the cage and feed in Tegal village, Bogor, West Java. The numbers of sample taken were 10 g of each plot. The isolation, identification and characterization of mold, was based on its phenotype macroscopic and microscopic. Forty-six molds [7 sourced from cages (15.21%) and 39 from warehouses (84.78%)] were isolated from 10 samples of the cage and warehouse-based chicken feed. The selection of representative mold isolates amounted to 22 isolates, consisting of four mold isolates from cages and 18 isolates from the warehouse. Six genera were identified, based on their morphological characteristics: Aspergillus (3 isolates), Penicillium (8 isolates), Fusarium (3 isolates), Trichoderma (3 isolates), Cladosporium (1 isolate), Paecilomyces (2 isolates) and Mycelia sterilia (2 isolates). The highest occurrence of mold isolates in chicken feed was Penicillium (36.36%), and the lowest of it was Cladosporium (4.54%). The findings are in line with the information about occurrence fungi in the chicken feed of poultry. These results showed that a potential exists for fungi contamination in chicken feed can be found at cage- and warehouse poultry feeds. Occurrence of fungi gives information to farmers to prevent a health of their livestock from excessively contaminated fungi genera Penicillium. Controlling as prevented by early detection or visual inspection and good management is a better choice compared to curing.