conjunctival fungal flora of healtly ghezel sheep in urmia province-iran

The objective of this study was to identify the fungal flora of conjunctival sac in clinically normal Ghezel sheep and determine the effect of host eye,age and sex on this flora.the animals(n=50) were selected from both sexes and divided into three age groups according to age.swabs were taken from the inferior conjunctival sac of both eyes(n=100) and cultured onto saboroud dextrose agar and malt extract agar,incubated at 25C and examined for 21 days.thirteen sheep out of 50 (26%) were positive for fungi:5/50(10%) had positive cultures from both eyes.the isolated fungal genera were cladosporium spp.-7 eyes (38.88%) , Aspergillus spp.-3 eyes(16.66%) penicillium spp. -3 eyes (16.66%) rhodoteurella spp. -3 eyes(16.66%) and curvularia spp. -2 eyes(11.11%). the isolation of cladosporium spp. was significantly frequent among the left eyes,females and sheep above three years of age (p<0.05).this study is first report of funhal flora of normal ovine conjunctiva.