A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE OCCURRENCE OF KERATINOPHILIC FUNGI IN SOILS OF JAMAICA

This report represents the first study of keratinophilic fungi present in soils of Jamaica. Out of the 40 soil samples examined from different habitats, 30 (75%) were positive for the presence of keratinophilic fungi, yielding 36 isolates of keratinophilic fungi. Microsporum gypseum complex (represe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Harish C. Gugnani, Soni Sharma, Kharl Wright
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2014-06-01
Series:Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0036-46652014000300231&lng=en&tlng=en
Description
Summary:This report represents the first study of keratinophilic fungi present in soils of Jamaica. Out of the 40 soil samples examined from different habitats, 30 (75%) were positive for the presence of keratinophilic fungi, yielding 36 isolates of keratinophilic fungi. Microsporum gypseum complex (represented by 16 isolates of M. gypseum, and four of M. fulvum) was most frequent, being present in 50% of the samples. A very high occurrence of this dermatophyte in Jamaican soil is of public health significance. The remaining isolates of keratinophilic fungi were represented by Chrysosporium spp (mainly C. indicum and C. tropicum) and Sepedonium sp.
ISSN:1678-9946