Fungal microbiota from ocular conjuctiva of clinically healthy horses belonging to the Military Police Cavalry of Alagoas

Abstract

Normal fungal conjunctiva microbiota of horses remains stable in healthy animals, free from ocular and/or systemic diseases which may, eventually, cause ocular alterations. The knowledge of the fungal microbiota is of great importance due to the reduced number of studies reported in the literature and also to the large occurrence of ocular alterations, mainly keratomycosis, in these animals. The aim of this study was to isolate and to identify the fungi present in the ocular conjunctiva of healthy horses belonging to the Military Police Cavalry of Alagoas. Samples from both conjunctival sacks from 50 horses were taken using a sterile swab and submitted to fungal cultures. These samples were seeded by radial spreading of the swabs on the Sabouraud agar surface with chloramphenicol, at a concentration of 50mg/L, in Petri dishes. Next, dishes were incubated at room temperature (± 28ºC) for 15 days. Horses conjunctival fungal microbiota was found to be composed by Aspergillus spp. (62%), Microsporum gypseum (6%), Penicillium spp. (6%), Curvularia spp. (5%), Candida spp. (3%), Fusarium spp. (3%), Acremonium spp. (2%), Bipolaris sp. (1%), Cladosporium sp. (1%), Chrysosporium sp. (1%), Rhodotorula sp. (1%), Aureobasidium sp. (1%) and Scopulariopsis sp. (1%). There is a wide variety of yeast-like and filamentous fungi colonizing the clinically healthy horses' ocular conjunctiva, out of which Aspergillus sp. is predominant. Although this was a straightforward study and have not recorded any ocular lesions that suggest fungi infections, these fungi might eventually be involved in this type of ocular pathology for the studied species

Identification of bacteria and fungi sampled from the conjunctival surface of normal horses in South‐East Queensland, Australia

“…These organisms are often contaminants from the local environment . Fungal organisms isolated from the normal equine eye include Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp., Fusarium spp., Alternaria spp., Chrysosporium spp., and Candida spp. Housing, breed and season affected the frequency of fungal isolation.…”

“…Previous studies have been conducted in the temperate parts of North America and Europe and in tropical locations such as Brazil . No studies have been conducted in Australia.…”

“…1 These organisms are often contaminants from the local environment. 6 Fungal organisms isolated from the normal equine eye include Aspergillus spp., 8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Cladosporium spp., [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]16,18 Penicillium spp., 8,12,13,[15][16][17][18] Fusarium spp., 8,[12][13][14]16 Alternaria spp., 8 Chrysosporium spp., 9 and Candida spp. [14][15][16][17] Housing, 8,12,14,16 breed 17 and season 19 affected the frequency of fungal isolation.…”

“…Previous studies have been conducted in the temperate parts of North America 7-10, 20 and Europe [11][12][13]15,18 and in tropical locations such as Brazil. 12,16 No studies have been conducted in Australia. We aimed to survey and identify the bacterial and fungal flora found on the conjunctival surface of normal equine eyes in South-East Queensland, a sub-tropical area in Australia, and to examine the risk factors of breed, age, sex, purpose, and housing of the horse and climatic conditions (including season, temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed) on the presence of microflora.…”

Ceratomicose em equinos

“…Os fungos isolados do olho do equino compreendem Aspergillus (BLOMME et al, 1998;MACHADO et al, 2005;UTTER et al, 2010), Penicillium (SOUSA et al, 2011), Alternaria, Cladosporium e Fusarium (BLOMME et al, 1998), entre outros SOUSA et al, 2011). Suspeita-se de envolvimento fúngico em animais com histórico de injúria corneal com material vegetativo ou, em úlceras previamente tratadas com antibiótico ou anti-inflamatório esteroidal, ou ambos, por tempo prolongado e com pobre resolução clínica (MACHADO et al, 2005;SANSOM et al, 2005;BROOKS & MATTHEWS, 2007).…”