Table 1.
Known habitats, geographic distributions, and pathogenic potentials of the eight members of the genus Wallemia. Adapted after [5,6,8,9,13,23,24,25,26,27,28].
| Wallemia spp. | Habitat | Geographic Distribution | Pathogenic Incidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| W. sebi | Hypersaline water in solar salterns and salt lakes; hay; sea salt; air and dust in indoor environments (house, office, storage areas); pond water, mineral water; seeds (sunflower, wheat, rye, barley, maize, in-shell peanuts, pecans, peas); baked goods (bread, ginger bread, marzipan cake); beans (mung, soybeans and soy products, green coffee beans); cereals (corn, rice, wheat); chocolate, milk and condensed milk; chili and peppers, fruits and fruit products (dates, jams, jellies, dried prunes, sultanas); maple syrup, dried salted fish, meat products, suet | Worldwide (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America) | Chronic ulcerative skin lesion in man (one case reported, Groningen, The Netherlands); fatal livestock toxicosis associated with contaminated hay (one case reported, Berkshire, UK) |
| W. mellicola | Salty foods (peanuts, dried fish); sugared food (date honey, cakes, jam, maple syrup, chocolate); dried food (bread, coconut pulp); hypersaline waters of solar salterns; air, dust and surfaces in indoor environments; soil; forest plants; seeds, straw, pollen | Worldwide (Asia, Europe, North America, Middle America, South America, Micronesia) | Subcutaneous lesion (phaeohyphomycosis) on foot in an immunocompetent human patient (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India) |
| W. muriae | Sugared food (date honey, cake, chocolate); salty food (peanuts); edible crickets and locusts; hypersaline waters of salterns world-wide; dry substrates (straw, seeds); air in agricultural and human associated environments; an insect (one report) | Worldwide (Asia, Europe, North America, South America) | Farmer’s lung disease; bronchial asthma |
| W. ichthyophaga | Hypersaline waters of salterns in Slovenia and Namibia; salted meat and fish; klipfish (salted cod)—not recorded from environmental substrates with high sugar content | Sporadic (Slovenia, Norway, Namibia) | No reports |
| W. tropicalis | Soil; house dust | Subtropical and tropical climates (Egypt, Uruguay, Indonesia and Micronesia) | No reports |
| W. canadensis | Cedar swamp; catwalk in silos; indoor dust and air | Temperate and cold climates (Canada, UK, Finland) | No reports |
| W. hederae | Common on ivy flowers (pollen); oak honey, barley seeds, hay, green coffee beans | Southern Europe (Slovenia, Croatia), South America (Mexico) | No reports |
| W. peruviensis | Air in agricultural settings | South America, Peru | No reports |