A Search for Pathogenic Species of Yeasts in New Zealand Soils

Abstract

SUMMARY: One hundred soils from various parts of the South Island of New Zealand were cultivated on an acid medium at 37°. Stockyard soils yielded most yeasts by this treatment, principally strains of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Candida parapsilosis. Few yeasts were isolated from rural soils, and very few from urban soils. Candida albicans was recovered from two soils, one from an urban area and one from a stockyard. Cryptococcus neoformans was not isolated. The yeast flora which grew at room temperature (c . 18°) of 8 soils was also examined. One of these, a peat soil, yielded a pure culture of Candida brumptii. Species of Cryptococcus and Trichosporon were dominant in the other seven samples, and their yeast population as a whole was of colourless, capsulated, non-fermenting, starch synthesizing and nitrate utilizing organisms.