Objective: To verify the occurrence of Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans) and other
fungi in samples of pigeon droppings collected from Makkah city, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: One hundred and twelve withered pigeon dropping samples were collected from
12 different districts. Using the dilution plate technique, samples were cultured on Sabouraud
dextrose agar and esculin agar. Colonies were examined microscopically and C. neoformans
identification is confirmed by India ink preparation, observation of urease activity and brown
pigmentation on esculin medium. Susceptibility patterns of five yeast species and four molds
against five antifungal drugs were tested using agar disk diffusion method.
Results: C. neoformans was recovered from 38 samples (34%). Na'aman valley was recorded
to be the highest contaminated site (66.7%) with C. neoformans, while the samples collected
from Al Awaly district were considered as the lowest contaminated samples (6.7%). Also,
twenty species related to sixteen genera of fungi other than C. neoformans were recovered from
which, three yeast genera were recorded. The antifungal susceptibility testing showed that the
nine tested fungal species were sensitive to Mycosat, while Fungican exerted inhibition zones
of four species only. C. neoformans was moderately sensitive towards all tested compounds but
it can resist Flucoral where no inhibition zone could be detected.
Conclusions: Our results are considered to be the first report on the environmental prevalence
of C. neoformans in pigeon feces in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The data indicated that pigeon
droppings can be considered as a potential source of this basidiomycetous yeast in addition to
other fungal species in this region.