A STUDY ON FUNGAL FLORA OF THE NORMAL EYE SURFACE IN IRANIAN NATIVE CATTLE

The microflora of the normal ocular surface is one of the sources supplying fungal agents for keratomycosis. This study was conducted to identify fungal isolates of the conjunctiva in clinically healthy Iranian native cattle in Urmia district. Swabs were taken from both eyes of cattle (n=45) and cultured onto Sabouraud dextrose agar with chloramphenicol and malt extract agar. Plates were incubated at 25°C and examined for 7 days. Data were analyzed for the effect of age and sex by fisher’s exact test. Thirteen cattle (28.89%) were found to be positive for fungal growth. The isolated fungal genera were Aspergillus spp-7 cases (53.84%), Penicillium spp-6 cases (46.15%), Rhodotorula sp-1 case (7.69%) and Candida sp-1 case (7.69%). Yeast genera represented 13.3% of all the isolates. Sex and age of cattle had no significant effect on prevalence of isolates. Incidence of fungal colonization of the eyes compared with similar studies was low which may reflect differences in season and technique of sampling. Unexpected high frequency of Aspergillus may be due to geographic differences.