• Question: Does mould carry any bacteria?

    Asked by MLL to Ciarán on 20 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ciarán O'Brien

      Ciarán O'Brien answered on 20 Nov 2014:


      Any mould found in nature will have bacteria living in or around it, in fact any living thing is usually covered in bacteria, they get absolutely everywhere.

      Mould specially grown in the lab can have the bacteria weeded out with certain antibiotics that won’t harm the mould. From there we can study them without bacteria getting in the way.

      Or, we can combine them with certain types of bacteria and use them to make cheese! That blue stuff you see in blue cheese? Yeah, that’s mould. Delicious mould…

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