Isolation of Keratinophilic Fungi from Soil Samples of Forests and Farm Yards

Soil is well known to support the transient or ongoing existence of kerathophilic fungi and potential sources of infection forhumans and animals. fifty soil samples were collected from various areas of forests and farmyards at golestan province inthe north part of iran to determine the prevalence of keratinophilic fungi and dominant species. a total of 357 fungal coloniesincluding 13 genera with 11 species were isolated as follows: anixiopsis stercoraria (16.24%), arthroderma cuniculi(12.04%), reniospora flavissima (9.24%), fusarium oxysporum (9.24%), aspergillus flavus (8.68%), chrysosporiumkeratinophilum (8.40%), trichophyton vanbreuseghemii (7.84%), and other fungi (37.56%). mcnemar’s test showed thatnon-keratinolytic fungi were dominant in this investigation (p< 0.05). anixiopsis stercoraria (16.24%) was the most prevalentand dominant keratinophilc fungus (p< 0.05). it can be concluded that soils from forest and farmyards of golestanprovince are rich in keratiophilic fungi including dermatophytes.