Mycoflora of Ostrich (Struthio camelus) gastrointestinal tract as a human hazard

Abstract

Ostriches are susceptible to bacterial, fungal and parasitic diseases. One of the most common<br />strategies to reduce microbial contamination in animal production systems is to identify microbe<br />sources. In this regard, a first critical component for comprehensive farm-to-fork strategies to reduce<br />the burden of foodborne illness is the identification of the pathogenic fungi in foodstuffs with animal<br />sources, and the reduction of human pathogen contamination in food production. This study was<br />carried out to identify to mycoflora in the ostriches' (Struthio camelus) gastrointestinal tract (GIT),<br />in the northwest of Iran. The samples were taken from different parts of the gut tract, including crop,<br />gizzard, intestine and caecum of 50 ostriches. Atotal of 396 fungal colonies were obtained from GIT.<br />These isolates belonged to 17 genera, and Candida (18.7 %), Aspergillus (16.7 %), Monascus (10.6<br />%), Trichosporon (6.6 %) and Fusarium (6 %) were predominant isolates. Among the Candida<br />isolates, C. tropicalis was the most predominant isolates following by C. albicans, C. glabrata and<br />C. krusei. Aspergillus spp. and Monascus ruber were predominant isolates among the mould fungi.