Investigation of keratinophilic fungi from soils in western Australia a preliminary survey.

In order to determine which species of geophilic dermatophytes were present in Western Australian soils 299 samples were investigated. These samples were collected from a range of locations, 208 towns throughout the state and 91 samples from the Perth Metropolitan area. Most samples were collected from areas frequented by people and animals, such as home gardens, parks and animal yards. Of the total 299 soils, 271 (90.6%) yielded keratinophilic fungi. A total of 181 dermatophytes were isolated, and there were 205 isolations of other keratinophilic fungi. Microsporum gypseum (30.7%) was the most prevalent dermatophyte recovered from soil followed by Microsporum cookei (21.7%) and then Trichophyton ajelloi (8.0%). No other dermatophytes were recovered. Chrysosporium indicum was the most common of all the keratinophilic fungi and was isolated from 50.1% of the samples. Mixed growth was obtained from 33.5% of the soil samples.