A comparative study of digestive tract mycoflora of broilers with layers

Abstract

Fungal agents, especially yeasts, are resident in digestive system as microflora and they can invade the mucosal tract in animals with predisposing factors. The prevalence of the resident fungal flora in the digestive tract of healthy broilers and layers during April to September 2008 was investigated. The samples were taken from the preventriculus, jejunum and cecum contents of 120 birds and cultured on Sabouraud glucose agar. Both filamentous fungus and yeasts were isolated and a predominance of the Candida species was found, followed by Trichosporon beigelii, Geotrichum candidum, Rhodotorula rubra and Saccharomyces cerevisiae species, which were found in 84.6%, 5.5%, 4.6%, 3.3% and 0.5% of cultures, respectively. Among the yeast isolates, Candida albicans (45.8%) was the most prevalent fungal agent, representing a significant proportion when compared to the other fungal isolates (P<0.05). The frequency of the yeast in the layers' digestive tract was significantly higher than that found in the broilers (P<0.05). Mycological examination revealed the highest numbers of yeasts in the cecum and lower numbers in the jejunum and preventriculus in two breeds.