Evidence of Fluconazole-Resistant Candida Species in Tortoises and Sea Turtles

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal susceptibility of Candida spp. recovered from tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) and sea turtles (Chelonia mydas, Caretta caretta, Lepidochelys olivacea, Eretmochelys imbricata). For this purpose, material from the oral cavity and cloaca of 77 animals (60 tortoises and 17 sea turtles) was collected. The collected specimens were seeded on 2% Sabouraud dextrose agar with chloramphenicol, and the identification was carried out by morphological and biochemical methods. Sixty-six isolates were recovered from tortoises, out of which 27 were C. tropicalis, 27 C. famata, 7 C. albicans, 4 C. guilliermondii and 1 C. intermedia, whereas 12 strains were obtained from sea turtles, which were identified as Candida parapsilosis (n = 4), Candida guilliermondii (n = 4), Candida tropicalis (n = 2), Candida albicans (n = 1) and Candida intermedia (n = 1). The minimum inhibitory concentrations for amphotericin B, itraconazole and fluconazole ranged from 0.03125 to 0.5, 0.03125 to >16 and 0.125 to >64, respectively. Overall, 19 azole-resistant strains (14 C. tropicalis and 5 C. albicans) were found. Thus, this study shows that Testudines carry azole-resistant Candida spp.

Cross‐resistance to fluconazole induced by exposure to the agricultural azole tetraconazole: an environmental resistance school?

“…In addition, considering that these agricultural drugs have long residual effect, their direct action on the yeast microbiota of humans and animals that feed on products with drug residues may also be speculated. Either or both mechanisms may be involved in the recovery of azole resistant Candida strains from several animal species, such as prawns, porcupine, raptors, rheas and tortoises, as reported in previous works of our group …”

Multilocus Sequence Typing Reveals a New Cluster of Closely Related Candida tropicalis Genotypes in Italian Patients With Neurological Disorders

“…In this context, C. tropicalis has emerged as the predominant NAC species causing candidemia, especially in East Asian and Latin American countries ( Yesudhason and Mohanram, 2015 ; Wang et al, 2016 ; da Matta et al, 2017 ; Motoa et al, 2017 ; Wu et al, 2017 ). In these countries, an extraordinary high incidence of C. tropicalis has also been recently reported from natural environments and animals ( Chi et al, 2012 ; Brilhante et al, 2015 ; Cordeiro Rde et al, 2015 ; Zuza-Alves et al, 2016 ) by representing a potential threat to humans living in these geographical areas.…”

Multilocus sequence analyses reveal extensive diversity and multiple origins of fluconazole resistance in Candida tropicalis from tropical China

“…Furthermore, our samples were all from one ecological niche, the oral cavities of humans. C. tropicalis has been found in a diversity of other environments, including organically enriched soil and aquatic environments 17 27 , and animals such as wild birds 28 , horses 29 , rheas 30 as well as in tortoises and sea turtles 31 . Hainan Island and the tropics in general are rich in organic compounds and wild animals.…”