PREVALENCE OF KERATINOPHILIC FUNGI IN PIGGERY SOILS OF JHARKHAND, INDIA

Jharkhand state of India has been a home td. a. Variety of tribaJ Communities Comprising fotar I of 32 different tribal groups constituting "~ around 28% of the total population of state. ~ Tribal population in th is area use to run . piggeries and also pork is an important part of i their fooding habit. Forty eight soil samples were collected from 12 piggeries of Ranchi; Jharkhand and screened for , presence of., keratinophi l ic fungi usi ng hair bai ting" techniques fo,r isolation. Fungal growths appearing on the baits after two to four weeks of incubation at room temperature were ,, microscopically exam.ined and cu ltured on "1 . myco logical media. Cul tures ~ere then ; identifi.ed on. the .. basi.s of col onial and . microscopic features. Fifteen isolates belonging to 9 genera w~re recovered anq identified byi,~ . recognit ion of their macroa·nd m icro..:" , morphological , feajures. The isolated species. . were reported in the following order of doh') inanc;e: Aspergillus n/ger ( 12.06%), Fusariun oxysporum (10.34%), Penicil/ium· chrysogenum and Mucor pusillus (8.6i%J, Trichoderma harzianum, • PeniCillium s1L and Rhizopus scolonifer (8.04%), Cuivularia lunata and Aspergillus terreus (5 .1 7%), Aspergi//{j{ flavus; Fusarium1•solani, •Trichoderma . reesei'• . and Altei naria a/tern aca (4 .59%), Chrysosporh1m sp: (4.02%) and Tri~hoderma ' viride (3.44%). INTRODUCTION Keratinophilic fungi are small, well defined and important group of fungi that colonize various keratinous substrates and degrade them to components of low molecular weight. The species of keratinophi lic fungi have been divided into three categories depending on thei r natural habitats: anthrophil ic, when human beings are natural host, zoophi lic, when animals act as natural host and geophilic, when they inhibit soi l. Studies on Keratinoph il ic fungi started in 1952 with the invent ion of the technique of the isolat ion so il fungi and soi l proved to be the natural reservoir of these fungi. Most keratinophilic fungi belong to families Arthodermataceae and Onygenaceae of the order Onygenales in Ascomycetes (Currah, 1985). Keratinophilic fungi represent an important component of soil microflora where they decompose the highly resistant keratin. Frequency of occurrence of keratinophi lic fungi in the soi l is influenced by a number of biotic and abiotic factors (Otsenasek, 1978). Reports on the presence of these fungi in different soil habitats from different countries e.g. Egypt (All et al., 1987), Australia (Rose, 1980), Palestine (Ali-Shtayeh, 1989), Spain (Clavo et al., 1984), India (Pandey et al., 1989; Anbu et a/., 2004; Gana ie, 2010; Deshmukh et al., 2010), Korea (Lee et al., 2011 ), Iran (Mahmoudabadi et a/., 2008), Kuwait (Al-Musallam, 1989), and Malaysia (Soon, 1991) have shown that these groups of fungi have its distribution worldw ide. The presence of keratinophilic in environment is variable and is influenced by human and animal interference (Mearcantini et al., 1983). Many investigations have been carried out in recent years on the distribution of keratinophilic fungi (Ajello et al. , 1965; Al-Doory, 1967; Guarro et al., 1981; Filipello, 1986, Agut et al. , 1995; Simpanya et a/. , 1996; Caretta et al., 1975; Papini et al., 1998; Deshmukh, 1999; Deshmukh et al., 201 O; Lee et al., 2011). The keratinophilic fungi inhibiting soil have special affinity to keratinous substrates and are potentially pathogenic to human and animals (Mitra, et al., 1998). These fungi have attracted the attention of mycologists and dermatologists al l over the world due to their association w ith human and animal mycoses (Rippon et al., 1969; Mirocha et al., 1972). In Jharkhand, tribal population use to consume pork on a large scale and thus there are lot of piggeries in the state. Hence it is significant to analyse the microflora of piggeries in Jharkhand in order to evaluate the presence and extent of keratino: phil ic fungi in these environments. A few investigators have reported the occur• rence of dematophytes and other keratinophilic fungi from various habitats in India (Singh et al., 1994; Ramesh and Tilda, 1999; Deshmukh, 2002; Deshmukh *Corresponding author ' and Verepar, 2006). However there are no reports on keratinophi lic fungi in Jharkhand, India. The present investigation was therefore undertaken to record the natural occurrence of keratinophilic fungi in the soi ls collected from pig farms in the state. Forty eight soil samples were collected randomly from 12 pig farms (4 samples per site) from the Ranchi district of Jharkhand. Before collection of soil samples, superfi cial debris and other vegetative materials were removed from the soil surface.