A survey of animal mycoses in Britain: Mycological aspects

Abstract

As a result of a two-year Survey of fungi associated with disease in farm animals in Britain, approximately 1200 isolates of fungi from morbid material were identified and classified in 129 species (see Table 1, p. 373). Twenty-eight species were considered to have been pathogenic or potentially pathogenic and to have been causally involved in approximately 300 cases. More than half the isolates belonged to five genera ( Aspergillus, Absidia, Candida, Trichophyton and Penicillium ) and there was a preponderance of two thermophilic species, Aspergillus fumigatus (19·6% of all isolates) and Absidia ramosa (8·4%). While the data provide little conclusive evidence that the fungi associated with one animal are more diverse than those associated with another, either for the whole animal or for the skin alone, they do suggest that the skin harbours a more diverse range of fungi than do other sites of the animal body, and they illustrate the importance of yeasts as components of the mycoflora of the respiratory organs, of the alimentary canal and of milk. Evidence was obtained that mouldy hay may be an important source of fungi potentially pathogenic for animals. An interesting feature of the Survey was the frequent isolation of aerobic Actinomycetes of uncertain pathogenic status from both the skin and internal organs. The paper includes an annotated list of the pathogenic or potentially pathogenic Eumycetes and Actinomycetes, together with a host index (p. 384).