The Prevalence of Fungi in Soil of Qazvin, Iran

Soil is the first habitat for pathogenic fungi and one of the important fungalreservoirs. the soil-borne fungi are major cause for different degrees of allergy orserious diseases in human beings.objectives: this current study aimed to determine the identities and diversity of thefungi associated with allergy, subcutaneous and even systemic fungal infections in anextensive region of qazvin district iran during 2008.materials and methods: in this study, 150 soil samples were randomly collected from25 locations of the city. the soil suspensions were prepared by sterile saline and thenantibiotics of streptomycin and penicillin were added and a portion of supernatant wascultured on sabouraud’s dextrose agar culture medium containing chloramphenicolwith and without cycloheximide and incubated at 35°c for 2-3 weeks. the fungal isolateswere examined macroscopically and microscopically.results: plates were tested to be positive for saprophytic fungi. out of a total of 1563 fungiisolates, 14 genera were diagnosed. cladosporium species representing (29.69%) of isolates,followed by species of aspergillus (22.52%), penicillium (19.90%), rhizopus (8.38%), alternaria(6.59%), mucor (3.77%), chrysosporium (1.98%), acremonium (1.60%), fusarium (1.34%), myceliasterilia (0.90%), ulocladium (0.83%), drechslera (0.58%) and scopulariopsis (0.45%).conclusions: the wide range of fungi, especially fungi associated with allergy, found inthe soil of qazvin indicated that this area was apt to propagate other medically importantfungi and although none of the dimorphic ones were documented, there is alwaysthe possibility to find these diseases in the country and it is essential that physicians beaware of diseases produced by these fungi, especially in predisposed people.