engleski

Isolation and molecular characterization of Malassezia pachydermatis from a cutaneous lesion in a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus)

Malassezia pachydermatis is an opportunistic yeast regularly isolated from the healthy and diseased skin of various animal species. There is scarcity of data about its presence on pinnipeds’ skin and even less information about its pathogenicity in aquatic animals. In this study, a twenty-seven year old California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) was presented with alopecia and a cutaneous lesion on the right side of the trunk that had appeared in the spring, worsened through the summer and significantly improved in the winter months. Swab samples were obtained from the lesion and healthy skin sites (tail, posterior flippers, and trunk) and M. pachydermatis was recovered from all samples. The number of colonies grown from the lesion site was significantly higher than those cultured from the healthy skin. Employing the ITS-1 molecular marker we investigated whether there is any connection between sequence types of M. pachydermatis isolates recovered from the lesion, and those isolated from the healthy skin sites. Sequencing of the ITS-1 region of all isolates revealed a 99% match to the sequence of M. pachydermatis. In addition, all sequences belonged to the same genotype and there was no difference found between the isolates obtained from the lesion site and the healthy skin

Malassezia pachydermatis ; alopecia ; cutaneous lesion ; California sea lion (Zalophus californianus)

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