Abstract
Wildlife animals are recognized as reservoirs for zoonotic fungi and their faeces might play an important role in introducing pathogens into the environment. Thought wild boar (Sus scrofa) population has dramatically increased across Europe, information about their possible role in dissemination of zoonotic pathogenic yeasts in the environment is scant. Therefore, fecal samples (n = 124) from wild boars from Campania region (Southern Italy) were collected and yeasts identified biochemically and molecularly by sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer region and their phylogenetical relationship assessed. The antifungal susceptibility profiles of yeasts were also investigated using AFST-EUCAST method. Yeasts were isolated from 50.1% of the samples with the highest occurrence in samples from the province of Salerno (61.1%). A total of 368 Candida strains belonging to nine species were identified, with Candida albicans (45.7%), followed by Candida krusei (15.2%), Kazachstania slooffiae (9.8%) and Candida parapsilosis (7.6%) as the most prevalent identified species. Among C. albicans four sequence types (i.e., ST1-ST4) were identified with an intraspecific nucleotide difference up to 0.21%. The ML tree grouped all representative sequence types as paraphyletic clades with those of the references yeast species, respectively and supported by high bootstrap values. Fluconazole was the less active drug whereas, posaconazole, voriconazole, and isavuconazole the most active one. No resistance phenomena were observed for C. albicans and high MICs values for 5FC, azoles and echinocandines were registered in non-albicans Candida spp. This study showed, for the first time, the important role of wild boars in dissemination of pathogenic fungi in the environment. The absence of resistance phenomena in the Candida spp. might reflect environmental free from residues of azoles antifungals pollution or chemicals and suggests the role of wild boar as bio indicators of environment quality.
Highlights
Fungal infections are considered a public health concern of emerging importance, due to the increased number of human and animal infections [1]
A total of eleven yeasts species belonging to Candida, Geotrichum and Rodotorula genera were isolated with the highest species diversity in samples collected from Salerno
No significant differences in yeasts occurrence were found according to gender or sex of tested animals (Table 1) but the highest diversity of yeast species was recorded in adult animals (Table 1)
Summary
Fungal infections are considered a public health concern of emerging importance, due to the increased number of human and animal infections [1]. An increasing number of non-albicans Candida species (Candida glabrata, Candida parapsilosis, Candida tropicalis, Candida krusei, Candida auris) associated with exogenously acquired infections has been recorded in humans and domestic animals and their low antifungal drug susceptibly has been considered, in some cases, as the major cause of outbreaks [4]. Birds have been considered the main global source of pathogenic fungi having an important role in the spreading these organisms thought their faeces [5, 8]. The wild boar has dramatically increased in number and distribution, becoming one of the most numerous and hunted ungulate species in Europe [13] They are considered model species to unveil the emergence, spread and persistence of antibacterial resistance in the wildlife-livestock interface [14]. The aims of this study were to i) evaluate the presence of yeasts in the faeces of wild boars and ii) determine the antifungal profile of the isolated strains
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