First report of environmental isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans and other fungi from pigeon droppings in Makkah, Saudi Arabia and in vitro susceptibility testing

Objective: To verify the occurrence of Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans) and other\udfungi in samples of pigeon droppings collected from Makkah city, Saudi Arabia.\udMethods: One hundred and twelve withered pigeon dropping samples were collected from\ud12 different districts. Using the dilution plate technique, samples were cultured on Sabouraud\uddextrose agar and esculin agar. Colonies were examined microscopically and C. neoformans\udidentification is confirmed by India ink preparation, observation of urease activity and brown\udpigmentation on esculin medium. Susceptibility patterns of five yeast species and four molds\udagainst five antifungal drugs were tested using agar disk diffusion method.\udResults: C. neoformans was recovered from 38 samples (34%). Na'aman valley was recorded\udto be the highest contaminated site (66.7%) with C. neoformans, while the samples collected\udfrom Al Awaly district were considered as the lowest contaminated samples (6.7%). Also,\udtwenty species related to sixteen genera of fungi other than C. neoformans were recovered from\udwhich, three yeast genera were recorded. The antifungal susceptibility testing showed that the\udnine tested fungal species were sensitive to Mycosat, while Fungican exerted inhibition zones\udof four species only. C. neoformans was moderately sensitive towards all tested compounds but\udit can resist Flucoral where no inhibition zone could be detected.\udConclusions: Our results are considered to be the first report on the environmental prevalence\udof C. neoformans in pigeon feces in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The data indicated that pigeon\uddroppings can be considered as a potential source of this basidiomycetous yeast in addition to\udother fungal species in this region