Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jul;12(7):1066-1069.
doi: 10.14202/vetworld.2019.1066-1069. Epub 2019 Jul 18.

Opportunistic pathogenic fungi isolated from feces of feral pigeons in Mafikeng, North West Province of South Africa

Michelo Syakalima  1 , Tsepo Ramatla  1 , Ngoma Lubanza  1
Affiliations

Opportunistic pathogenic fungi isolated from feces of feral pigeons in Mafikeng, North West Province of South Africa

Michelo Syakalima et al. Vet World. 2019 Jul.

Abstract

Background and aim: Pigeon feces are increasingly being implicated in the spread of bacterial pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Listeria, and Chlamydia. Fungi are rarely investigated except for Cryptococcus that has emerged as an important pathogen in old people and immunosuppressed patients. This study investigated fungi in pigeon feces collected from Mafikeng, the North West Province of South Africa.

Materials and methods: Freshly dropped feces were collected and enriched in phosphate-buffered saline overnight at 48°C and then subcultured on Sabouraud's dextrose agar and incubated at 48°C for 2 weeks observing any fungal growth from day 2. The growths were picked up, DNA extracted, and polymerase chain reaction was done using the internal transcribed spacer primers.

Results: Fungi isolated included: Aspergillus (Aspergillus tubingensis), Cryptococcus (Cryptococcus albidus and Cryptococcus randhawai), Fusarium spp., and Rhodotorula (Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Rhodotorula kratochvilovae). Most of these isolates are known opportunistic pathogens and have been isolated in clinical conditions elsewhere. Other isolates such as Graphium dubautiae, Myrmecridium schulzeri, Naganishia albida, Paecilomyces lilacinus, and Zygopleurage zygospora were not found to be of any human health significance.

Conclusion: We, therefore, concluded that the presence of these opportunistic pathogens is a significant human health risk, especially in the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that results in immunosuppression.

Keywords: chain reaction; fungi; opportunistic pathogens; pigeon feces; polymerase.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure-1
Figure-1
Electrophoresis in a 1.5% agarose gel of polymerase chain reaction amplified internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene. Lane M: Molecular weight marker (1 kb); Lane 1-18 (ITS gene fragments from DNA extracted from pigeons feces), Line 19: Negative control.
Figure-2
Figure-2
The evolutionary history of isolated fungi using the maximum likelihood method.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Chae H, Park G, Kim S, Jo H, Kim J, Jeoung H, An D, Kim N, Shin B, Kang Y. Rapid direct identification of Cryptococcus neoformans from pigeon droppings by nested PCR using CNLAC1 gene. Poult. Sci. 2012;91(8):1983–1989. - PubMed
    1. Tanaka C, Miyazawa T, Watarai M, Ishiguro N. Bacteriological survey of feces from feral pigeons in Japan. J. Vet. Med. Sci. 2005;67(9):951–953. - PubMed
    1. Shah S, Birnbaum B, Jacobs J. Disseminated aspergillosis inciting intestinal ischemia and obstruction. Br. J. Radiol. 2001;74(888):1145–1147. - PubMed
    1. Dannaoui E, Garcia-Hermoso D. New Insights in Medical Mycology. New York: Springer; 2007. The Zygomycetes; pp. 159–183.
    1. Nucci M, Anaissie E. Fusarium infections in immunocompromised patients. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 2007;20(4):695–704. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources