Isolation of Cryptococcusneoformans var. gatti from Around of Eucalyptus trees in Different Regions of Iran

Cryptococcosis is aopportunistic fungal infection. Current disease form occurs as a pulmonary form and as a chronic, subacute and rarely acute disease. Cryptococcal infections mainly occur in immunocompromised patients. This study was done to isolate Cryptococcusneoformans var. gatti from different regions of Iran.
Iran was divided to 3 regions including north, south and central areas. Areas with Eucalyptus trees are randomly selected covering total regions. In north area (Mazandaran and Golestan provinces), in central area,( Tehran, Esfahan and Fars provinces) and in south area,( Khuzestan and Hormozgan provinces) were selected. 495 samples were collected from leaf, soil, flower and air around the Eucalyptus trees during 6 months and were cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar (S) and Sabouraud dextrose agar supplemented with chloramphenicol (SC) media. Niger seed agar and l-canavanine glycine bromothymol blue were used as differentiation of Cryptococc-usneoformans var. gatti.
Findings: Total of 13 Cryptococcusneoformans var. gatti were identified which 3 isolates (2.5%) were from Khuzestan province, 10 samples (9.2 %) isolated from Mazandaran and Golestan provinces but no cases were isolated from central area .From total isolates, 1 case from 113 flowers samples, 3 cases from 171 leaves samples, 4 cases from 40 air samples and 5 cases from 171 soil samples, identified as Cryptococcusneoformans var. gatti.
Discussion & A significant difference was observed in isolation of Cryptococcusneoformans var. gatti from soil and air, also asignificant difference was observed between presence of yeast in air and soil samples (P