Prevalence, serotypes and mating patterns of Cryptococcus neoformans in the pellets of different avifauna in Madras, India

Abstract

A total of 887 pellets of different avifauna were screened for the presence of Cryptococcus neoformans. One hundred and six of 887 samples (12%) yielded Cr. neoformans in culture. The report on the isolation of Cr. neoformans from the pellets of the crow appears to be new and of greater significance because of the ubiquitous prevalence of this bird in India. The prevalence of both MAT a and MAT alpha mating types were recorded. The serotype D was predominant over serotype A. The findings of the present study reveal the growing diverse ecological niche of Cr. neoformans in a the pellets of various avifauna in India.

Global Molecular Epidemiology ofCryptococcus neoformansandCryptococcus gattii: An Atlas of the Molecular Types

“…In most of the environmental surveys, C. gattii was isolated from tree samples, namely, from Syzygium cumini , Mimusops elengi , Azadirachta indica , Acacia nilotica , Cassia fistola , Manikara hexandra , Polyalthia longifolia , Eucalyptus camaldulensis , Tamarindus indica , Cassia marginata , and Mangifera indica [32, 33, 177], while the only ten isolates from an animal source were recovered from koalas living in two different zoos in Japan [178, 179]. On the contrary, C. neoformans was prevalently isolated from pigeon and other birds excreta [180] and less frequently from trees such as Eucalyptus tree, Tamarindus arjuna , Tamarindus indica , Cassia fistola , Syzygium cumini , and Ficus religiosa [33, 177, 181, 182], as well as from some vegetables and fruit (tomato, carrot, banana, eggplant, papaya, apple, and guava) [183, 184]. Among animals, few C. neoformans isolates were isolated from cat and dog and one from a bandicoot [185, 186].…”

Evolution of Parasitism and Pathogenic Adaptations in Certain Medically Important Fungi

“…In recent years, fungal diseases have reached epidemic proportions in causing morbidity and mortality all over the world as it is regarded that it may be just the tip of the iceberg. Increasing immunocompromised status in human beings due to the advent of human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, debilitating illness such as cancer, COVID-19, prolonged steroid treatment, organ transplantation, and chronic diseases perhaps are the conditions that would have promoted these opportunistic pathogenic fungi into "Champion parasites" in causing human diseases [1]. Thus, these so-called low virulent saprophytic fungi are capable of causing diseases given the opportunity and availability of susceptible hosts.…”