Fusariella
Characteristics: No information is available regarding health effects or toxicity.
Allergenicity has not been studied.Description: Fusariella species comprise a very small proportion of the fungal biota. No information is available regarding health effects or toxicity. Allergenicity has not been studied. Rarely found but may be identified on surfaces by tape lifts, tease mounts from bulk samples, and in air by culturable (Andersen) samples. May be identified on spore trap samples if the presence of this genus has already been demonstrated (for example, on tape lifts). (Spores have somewhat distinctive morphology but may be confused with other genera.) Natural habitat includes leaves, dead stems, and litter (many plants).
Fusarium
Characteristics: Type I allergen, considered pathogenic, and considered toxigenic.
Description: It is often found in soil or as a plant pathogen as a saprophyte or parasite with a pink, orange, or purple coloration. It is disseminated as a wet spore by insects and water or as a dry spore by the wind. For indoor growth this fungus requires very wet conditions. As an allergen, it has been known to cause type I symptoms including hay fever and asthma. As a pathogen, it has been known to cause keratitis, endophthalmitis, onychomycosis, mycetoma, and disseminated infection in immunocompromised patients, infections in burn victims, and systemic opportunistic infections in severely disabled hosts. As a toxigenic agent, it produces trichothecenes (type B), T-2 toxin, zearalenone (F-2 toxin), vomitoxin, deoxynivalenol, and fumonisin. Zearalenone is not acutely toxic, and may actually have positive effects with controlled ingestion. Zearalenone has been patented as a growth stimulant in animals and has application as an oral contraceptive, and as an anabolic steroid.
