Conventional and Molecular Identification of Pathogenic and Keratinophilic Fungi Isolated from Feathers of Bird in Erbil City

Abstract

During the period of August 2014 to January 2015, two hundred twenty four samples from 43 species of bird pets were collected from feathers then examined. The results of isolated feathers samples shows that Chaetomium species constituted the majority of saprophytic fungi (27.5%) followed by Aspergillus spp. (22.8%), Humicola spp. (8.7%), Emericella spp. (8.7%), Penicillium spp. (8.6%), Stachybotrys spp. (4.5%), Acremonium spp. (3.7%), Rhizopus spp. (3.6%), Drechslera spp. (3.1%), Cunninghamella spp. (2.4%), Mucor spp. (2.4%), Fusarium spp. (1.8%), F. dimerum (0.9%) and Sepidonium spp. (1.4%). The highest rate of isolated dermatopytes was Trichophyton which was (75%) followed by Arthroderma spp. (17.3%), Microsporum canis (5.1%) and M. gypsium (2.6%). Among keratinophilic fungi Chrysosporium spp. has the highest rate of isolated fungi by (91.4%) followed by Fonsecaea spp. (2.8%), Scopulariopsis spp. (2.8%), S. brevicaulis (0.9%) and Syncephalastrum spp. (2.1%). Among yeasts Candida spp . was the highest which was (74.2%) followed by Trichosporonasahii (13.8%), Geotricumklebahnii (5.8%), G. candidum (2.4%), Cryptococcus laurentii (3.8%). Genomic DNA was extracted from common highly dermatophytes, keratinophilic and Candida spp. by using EZ-10 Spin Column Fungal Genomic DNA Mini-Preps Kit, with high purity 1.7-1.8, the ITS regions from all extracted DNA were amplified by using ITS1/ITS4 primer set, for identification of dermatophytes, Keratinophilic and Candida species. The products were electrophoresed through 2% agarose gels in TBE buffer and visualized by staining with ethidium bromide under UV irradiation.