Occurrence of Cryptococcus neoformans (Sanfelice) Vuillemin (1901) in droppings of pigeons in the urban perimeter of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Authors

  • Lílian S. Santana Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana. Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Km 03, BR 116, 44031-460, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brasil.
  • Misael S. Ferreira Costa Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Micologia, Cidade Universitária, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil.
  • Lusinete A. de Queiroz Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Micologia, Cidade Universitária, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13102/scb8119

Abstract

Cryptococcus neoformans is an encapsulated yeast, cosmopolitan, agent of human cryptococcosis. Two varieties of C. neoformans have traditionally been recognized: C. neoformans var. neoformans is the opportunistic agent of cryptococcosis in immunodepressed hosts, and C. neoformans var. gattii causes cryptococcosis in apparently healthy hosts in tropical and subtropical regions and behaves as a true pathogen. The major environmental sources of C. neoformans have been shown to be either soil contaminated with pigeon droppings (var. neoformans) or eucalyptus trees and decaying wood forming hollows in living trees (var. gattii). The present work aims to verify the presence of C. neoformans in pigeon droppings in squares, plazas and avenues in the city of Salvador-Ba; to characterize isolated with regard to the main factors of virulence in vitro - thermotolerance at 37ºC, capsule and urease, and biotyping. For this study 16 samples of pigeon droppings were collected in duplicates in eight localities and analyzed. Suspensions of the samples were sown in three ways, agar malt, Sabouraud agar and Niger seed agar, and maintained at 27ºC. Results demonstrated that in the pigeon droppings of 50% of the studied localities presented C. neoformans proven by morphophysiological tests. Through the biotyping, all the isolated ones proved to belong to var. neoformans. This result suggests that pigeon dropping is a potential source of C. neoformans.

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References

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Published

2007-06-01

How to Cite

Santana, L. S., Costa, M. S. F., & Queiroz, L. A. de. (2007). Occurrence of Cryptococcus neoformans (Sanfelice) Vuillemin (1901) in droppings of pigeons in the urban perimeter of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. SITIENTIBUS série Ciências Biológicas, 7(2), 170–175. https://doi.org/10.13102/scb8119

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2007)

Section

Artigos

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Sitientibus série Ciências Biológicas (SCB) is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.