Isolation of Malassezia sympodialis and Malassezia globosa from healthy pet cats

摘要

THE genus Malassezia consists of a group of lipophilic yeasts which have thick, multilayered cell walls which produce blasto-conidia by repetitive monopolar or sympodial budding (Yarrow and Aheam 1984, Simmons and Gueho 1990) Most Malassezia species require lipid supplementation for in vitro growth and, until recently, all lipid-dependent Malassezia yeasts were named M furfur (Yarrow and Ahearn 1984). Six lipid-dependent species are now recognised, however, namely M furfur, M sympodialis, M globosa,M obtusa, M restricta and M slooffiae (Simmons and Gueho 1990, Guillot and Gueho 1995, Gu6ho and others 1996). M pachydermatis is unique within the genus in that it usually grows well on routine mycological media without lipid supplementation (Yarrow andAhearn 1984). Malassezia species yeasts can be isolated from the skin of a variety of mammals and birds but the flora varies markedly between different host speciesfor reasons that remain poorly understood (Midgley 1989, Guillot and others 1994). Thereis a large body of evidence which suggests that Malassezia species yeasts are opportunistic cutaneous pathogens in humans (Ingham and Cunningham 1993), dogs (Dufait 1983, Laisson and others 1988, Mason and Evans 1991, Bond and others 1995) and cats (Carlotti and others 1993).