Ocular fungal flora in healthy donkeys in Iran

Fungi are normal inhabitants of the equine ocular surfaces. However, they can cause keratomycosis under certain conditions. This work was aimed at identifying the fungal flora of the normal conjunctiva of donkeys in Iran and to determine the effect of gender and age variations on the flora. Samples were collected from both eyes of 120 healthy donkeys, aged 1-12 years, and subsequently cultured on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar. Totally, 92.08% of specimens were culture-positive for one to six different species of fungi (overall 10 genera and 13 species were isolated). The most common fungal genera were Candida (33.01%), Alternaria (25.91%), Penicillium (16.89%) and Aspergillus (11.70%). Yeasts (Candida, Rhodotorula and Geotrichum spp) represented 38% of the isolates. Age and sex of donkeys appeared to influence the isolation rate of some fungal species. A positive correlation was found between the age and number of fungal species isolated per eye (r=0.187; P=0.008). Isolated fungi were similar to those reported previously for equine species, although the prevalence of yeasts was higher which may be due to geographical differences.