Feral pigeons as carriers of Cryptococcus laurentii, Cryptococcus uniguttulatus and Debaryomyces hansenii.

We collected fresh droppings and cloaca samples from feral pigeons Columba livia in the southern Swedish city of Malmö, and isolated the following fungi: Debaryomyces hansenii var. hansenii, Cryptococcus laurentii and Cryptococcus uniguttulatus. The first two species are known to be pathogenic to humans. No strains of Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans were found. Our results indicate that feral pigeons can be carriers of medically significant fungi other than Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans.