High prevalence of Candida yeast in milk samples from cows suffering from mastitis in poland

Mastitis is an economically important disease in which fungi belonging to the genus Candida may participate as etiological agents. This study focused on determining the frequency of fungal isolation and differentiation of fungal species isolated from milk of mastitic cows. Sixty-six milk samples from mastitic cows were studied, and 55 strains of fungi were isolated. Seven different species classified as Candida were identified basing on phenotypic properties, and the dominating species was C. parapsilosis. Genomic DNA was isolated and amplified in PCR with ITS1 and NL2 primers. Amplification products were digested with restriction enzymes HpaII and EcoRI. Amplification of DNA with ITS1 and NL2 primers resulted in products of different sizes. Comparison of product sizes in restriction fragment PCR REA confirmed differences among species. Strains grouped together on the basis of phenotype characteristics differed in restriction fragment profiles. None of the investigated species showed similar genetic profiles.

[Animals as a potential source of human fungal infections]

Changing environment is a reason, that many saprotrophic fungi became opportunists and in the end also maybe a pathogenic. Host specific adaptation is not so strong among fungi, so there are many common fungal pathogens for people and for animals. Animals suffering from dermatomycosis are well recognize as source of human superficial mycoses. Breeding of different exotic animals such as parrots, various Reptiles and Amphibians, miniature Rodents and keeping them as a pets in the peoples houses, have become more and more popular in the recent years. This article is shortly presenting which animals maybe a potential source of fungal infections for humans. Looking for the other mycoses as systemic mycoses, especially candidiasis or aspergilosis there are no data, which allow excluding sick animals as a source of infection for human, even if those deep mycoses have endogenic reactivation mechanism. Immunocompromised people are in high-risk group when they take care of animals. Another important source of potentially pathogenic, mostly air-born fungi may be animal use in experimental laboratory work. During the experiments is possible that laboratory workers maybe hurt and these animals and their environment, food and house boxes could be the possible source of microorganisms, pathogenic for humans or other animals. Unusual way to inoculate these potentially pathogens into the skin of laboratory personnel may cause granulomatous, local lesions on their hands.

[RAPD differentiation of yeast like fungi Malassezia pachydermatis]

The aim of the work was analyzing of genomic DNA of Malassezia pachydermatis isolates from clinical cases otitis externa from dogs using RAPD method with arbitrary primers Eric 1R, Eric2, BG2 and FM1.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

47 strains of M. pachydermatis isolates from clinical cases otitis externa from dogs were tested. Isolation of genomic DNA was provided according with MasterPureTM Yeast DNA Purification Kit EPICENTRE procedure. The quality of isolated genomic DNA was determined electrophoreticaly. For differentiation the following primers were used: Eric1R, Eric2, BG2 and FM1. Primers Eric 1R and Eric 2 were used together in one reaction or amplificated separately. Obtained products were analyzed electrophoreticaly in 1.5% agarose gel. For determination of phylogenic tree Quantity one VersaDoc (BioRad) and Statgraphics plus 4.1 programs were used.

RESULTS

High degree of heterogeneity of DNA among investigated isolates of M. pachydermatis was shown using FM1 primer. Dendrograms were prepared by calculation euclid's distance of different parameters (size and count of RAPD products) by nearest neighbor method. Basing on phylogenic tree four main types (phylogenic groups) of M. pachydermatis isolates were shown. The other five groups non-count was shown also.

[Yeast-like fungi--occurrence in animals]

The yeast-like fungi are typical opportunistic microorganisms which may be a part of normal commensally ontocenosis. Many species of Candida genus may be also a cause of candidosis in human and animals. Clinical symptoms occurred customly in patient with cellular immunity deficiencies. Horizontal (person-to-person) form of transmission is also possible, including family infection or group infection in animals, mostly in birds. According to actual data, zoonotic status of candidosis is still not fully documented. In animals, candidosis more often occurs as endogenic infection. The separate problem is infection of animals with significance suppressed immune system, e.g. with tumor diseases. In necroscopy investigation very often in these animals disseminated candidosis has been observed. On different way the infections of Candida spp. are manifested in birds, when Candida albicans occurs as marginal population of normal intestinal ontocenosis. During stress the intestinal fungal population is growing up for critical value and typical crop candidosis is developing. In our routine diagnostic work we have isolated Candida strains from nutritional tract in laboratory mice. This yeast were isolated also from the bottom of the boxes and from mice faeces.

[Mixed dermatophyte infection in a cat]

Skin mycoses in animals are mostly caused by Microsporum canis, Microsporum persicolor, Microsporum gypseum and in rare cases by Trichophyton mentagrophytes. As a rule only one dermatophyte species is isolated from skin lesions, but at times mixed infection with bacteria occur. In the described case in a cat with typical dermatomycosis, Microsporum canis and Trichophyton mentagrophytes were isolated simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge this is the first case of mixed dermatophyte infection to be descibed in the cat. This paralell infection may suggests, that primary infection of one dermatophyte does not prevent the animal from a secondary infection.