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African dust clouds could bear infections

Ian Sample

London: Giant clouds of dust whipped up by desert storms in Africa can carry infectious organisms to other continents, scientists claimed on Thursday. Despite being blown more than 4.8 km high and exposed to radiation from the sun, strains of bacteria and fungi survived and were able to grow when they returned to the earth.

Among 40 tests of air samples taken in the mid-Atlantic, 24 revealed living microbes, including 26 colonies of bacteria and 83 fungi. They included strains capable of causing disease in humans, animals and plants. "Even if the UV [ultra violet] kills 90 per cent of the microbes, dust higher up in the cloud will shade those lower down, so you still get a phenomenal number surviving," said scientist Dale Griffin of the U.S. Geological Survey. The microbes included Gordonia terra, which can cause skin disease in humans, Massaria rosatii, which infects sycamore trees, and Alternaria dauci, causing carrot blight.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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