Yeasts associated with the white shrimp Penaeus schmitti, sediment, and water of Sepetiba Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Samples were collected in a polluted site with mean fecal coliform counts of the water being 9.0 x 10(2)/100 ml and less polluted areas including commercial fishing areas with fecal coliforms typically below 2.0 x 10(1)/100 ml. Yeast populations from the polluted site were 4.6 x 10(2) to 9.2 x 10(3)/g of shrimp intestine, 1.0 x 10(1) to 2.4 x 10(2)/g of sediment and 4.0 x 10(-1) to 4.6 x 10(1)/ml of water, and in the less polluted site 3.0 x 10(1) to 2.3 x 10(2)/g of intestines and 3.0 x 10(-1) to 2.4 x 10(1)/ml of water. About half of these yeast populations were fermentative. Prevalent yeasts isolated from shrimp were Candida famata, Candida intermedia, Candida tropicalis, Candida krusei, Geotrichum sp., Trichosporon sp., Debaryomyces hansenii, Rhodotorula rubra, Kloeckera apiculata, Cryptococcus sp., Hansenula anomala, and Candida spp. The species found in water and sediment were similar to those of shrimp except that C. tropicalis was more prevalent in sediment with 25% of the population and D. hansenii in water with 12%. Yeasts normally associated with warm blooded animals and sewage were predominant in the shrimp from the polluted site, but yeasts from the less polluted site were more typical of clean water. Yeasts were concentrated in the shrimp intestine suggesting that this is a favorable environment for them but no species were found to be selectively associated with this niche.