Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic basidiomycete yeast that causes life-threatening infections as meningoencephalitis primarily in immunocompromised hosts, generally associated with AIDS. The source of this organism is mainly pigeon excreta; however, other avian species' excreta are implicated as a source of this yeast. The occurrence of C. neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii in bird excreta in the state of Paraná in Brazil was determined in this study. A total of 141 samples of Passerine and Psittacine excreta from captive birds were collected. Additionally, 25 clinical samples from Hospital de Clínicas, in the state of Paraná were also analyzed. The determination of molecular and mating type of the isolates was performed by PCR fingerprinting, multiplex PCR, and mating type PCR. Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii (VNI) was isolated from 36 (25.53%) of Passerine and Psittacine excreta samples. Almost all clinical samples, except one (C. gattii VGI), were classified as C. neoformans var. grubii (VNI). All environmental and clinical isolates were mating type alpha. These findings reinforce that, besides pigeon excreta, the excreta of these birds can also be a reservoir of C. neoformans in domestic and public environments and is of zoonotic importance to immunocompromised patients.

SUMMARYInfection by Candidaspp. is associated with high mortality rates, especially when treatment is not appropriate and/or not immediate. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly identify the genus and species of Candida. The aim of this study was to compare the identification of 89 samples of Candida spp. by the manual methods germ tube test, auxanogram and chromogenic medium in relation to the ID 32C automated method. The concordances between the methods in ascending order, measured by the Kappa index were: ID 32C with CHROMagar Candida(κ = 0.38), ID 32C with auxanogram (κ = 0.59) and ID 32C with germ tube (κ = 0.9). One of the species identified in this study was C. tropicalis,which demonstrated a sensitivity of 46.2%, a specificity of 95.2%, PPV of 80%, NPV of 81.1%, and an accuracy of 80.9% in tests performed with CHROMagar Candida;and a sensitivity of 76.9%, a specificity of 96.8%, PPV of 90.9%, NPV of 91%, and an accuracy of 91% in the auxanogram tests. Therefore, it is necessary to know the advantages and limitations of methods to choose the best combination between them for a fast and correct identification of Candidaspecies.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">Introdução: Assim como na entomologia forense, onde os insetos fornecem informações para a medicina legal, os fungos, que </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">também aparecem na superfície dos corpos de humanos e animais em decomposição, podem ser uma ferramenta útil para a </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">Tanatologia. Devido às variações climáticas, geográficas e ecológicas das diferentes regiões do mundo, as informações acerca do </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">padrão fúngico terão diferentes contribuições na micologia forense. Objetivo: Analisar o crescimento dos fungos em cadáveres </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">de suínos em decomposição na região metropolitana da capital do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, durante o verão. Métodos: Foram </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">utilizados dois suínos expostos em ambiente aberto no município de Viamão, durante o verão (mês de dezembro). As colheitas </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">de amostras fúngicas foram realizadas com um intervalo de 5, 10, 15, 20 e 30 (dias após a exposição). Resultados e Conclusão: </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">Em 30 dias de exposição os fungos isolados foram predominantemente Candida spp e Penicillium spp. Este é o primeiro trabalho </span><span style="line-height: 15px;">que trata do tema no Brasil.</span></p>

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