Abstract
Recent Cryptococcus gattii infections in humans and animals, including several outbreaks in goats, were the basis of this environmental survey in six provinces of Spain. A total of 479 samples from 20 tree species were studied. Cryptococcus gattii was found for the first time in autochthonous Mediterranean trees in Spain. Fourteen isolates of this pathogen were obtained from seven trees of three different species: 12 from carob (Ceratonia siliqua), one from Mediterranean stone pine (Pinus halepensis) and another from eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis). All C. gattii isolates were genotype AFLP4/VGI and mating type alpha, and were found to be genetically identical with C. gattii strains isolated from humans and animals in Spain. This supports the hypothesis that these trees may be a natural source for infection of humans and mammals in the Mediterranean area.
Acknowledgements
The authors want to thank the owners of the infected ferret (Guillermo and Esther) for their help in sampling trees in Gavà (Barcelona). Jesús Guinea (Hospital General Universitario ‘Gregorio Marañón’, Madrid, Spain) and Manuel Cuenca-Estrella (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain), for providing clinical C. gattii strains. Josep M. Torres (Institut Municipal d'Investigació Mèdica. Barcelona), Miguel Hermoso and Alfredo García (University of Extremadura. Cáceres, Spain) for providing veterinary C. gattii strains. Pepa Antón and Kazuo Sato for their help sampling holm trees. Concepción Nuñez for laboratory technical assistance and María Abad for the English proofreading of the manuscript. This work was supported by Generalitat Valenciana grant GVPRE/2008/399, Foundation Navarro-Tripodi (Alicante, Spain) and the Odo van Vloten Foundation (The Netherlands).
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
This paper was first published online on Early online on 27 April 2011.