FREQUENCY OF YEASTS AND FILAMENTOUS FUNGI IN THE EXTERNAL EAR CANALS OF CATTLE IN IRAN

Fungal microbiotas are saprophytic microorganisms that can act as opportunistic pathogens in animals. This study was carried out in order to isolate and identify the ear fungal biota from healthy cattle. The samples were taken using premoistened swabs from the right and/or left external ear canals of 32 healthy cattle and cultured onto Sabouraud glucose agar and modified Dixon's agar media. A total of eight different fungal genera were isolated from 29 (90.6%) of 32 healthy cattle. Both filamentous fungi and yeasts were isolated with the predominance of Aspergillus spp. (35.6%), Candida spp. (18.9%) and Malassezia spp. (16.8%). The most frequent Aspergillus spp. were A. fumigatus (16.8%), A. glaucus (14.9%) and A. flavus (4%). Among the fungal isolates, 46.5% and 17.8% colonies were associated with hyaline and dematiaceous fungi, respectively ( p = 0.003). The recognized fungi, especially Aspergillus spp. and Candida spp., were colonizes as mycobiota in the external ear canals of healthy cattle, leading to otitis externa under predisposing factors.