Breastmilk and NICU surfaces are potential sources of fungi for infant mycobiomes.

ABSTRACT: Surfaces within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), especially those handled frequently by hospital staff, provide sources of gut-colonizing bacteria for hospitalized infants, in addition to those acquired perinatally from maternal sources such as breastmilk. In comparison to bacteria, very little is known about potential sources of colonizing fungi in the NICU setting. Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize fungal communities (mycobiomes) of potential colonization sources for neonates hospitalized in a large university NICU. We hypothesized that the unit surfaces would contain different mycobiomes than those of human-associated (breastmilk) sources. We characterized mycobiomes of NICU surfaces of multiple individual patient care areas as well as those of breastmilk sam

SUBMITTER: Heisel T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6555646 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature