Mammalian Safety Tests of Metarhizium Anisopliae: Preliminary Results

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Environmental Entomology

Volume

11

Publication Date

2-1-1982

First Page

189

Last Page

192

Abstract

Preliminary mammalian safety tests were conducted on the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anosipliae. No animals died or were clinically ill after injection of or exposure to M. anosipliae. There was no evidence of ocular irritation, and tissue lesions were confined to local sites at which large numbers of spores were collected. There was no histologic evidence of spore germination in mammalian tissues. M. anosipliae was recovered from stomach, lung, and spleen after 2 weeks of exposure of mice to dusts but not at the end of week 3. Fungi were recovered also from focal granulomas that followed intraperitoneal injections of M. anosipliae spores into rats. Fungi were recovered from spleens of rats given spores intraperitoneally, but the spleens were sterile 21 days after exposure. We concluded that our tests reveal no evidence of human or mammalian pathogenicity of M. anosipliae.

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