Evidence of fluconazole-resistant Candida species in tortoises and sea turtles

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal susceptibility of Candida spp. recovered from tortoises ( Chelonoidis spp.) and sea turtles ( Chelonia mydas , Caretta caretta , Lepidochelys oli- vacea , Eretmochelys imbricata ). For this purpose, material from the oral cavity and cloaca of 77 animals (60 tortoises and 17 sea turtles) was collected. The collected specimens were seeded on 2 % Sabouraud dextrose agar with chloramphenicol, and the identifi- cation was carried out by morphological and bio- chemical methods. Sixty-six isolates were recovered from tortoises, out of which 27 were C . tropicalis ,27 C . famata ,7 C . albicans ,4 C . guilliermondii and 1 C . intermedia , whereas 12 strains were obtained from sea turtles, which were identified as Candida parap- silosis ( n = 4), Candida guilliermondii ( n = 4), Can- dida tropicalis ( n = 2), Candida albicans ( n = 1) and Candida intermedia ( n = 1). The minimum inhibitory concentrations for amphotericin B, itraconazole and fluconazole ranged from 0.03125 to 0.5, 0.03125 to [ 16 and 0.125 to [ 64, respectively. Overall, 19 azole- resistant strains (14 C. tropicalis and 5 C. albicans ) were found. Thus, this study shows that Testudines carry azole-resistant Candida spp