Isolamento e perfil de sensibilidade de Kodamaea ohmeri em um contexto de saúde única

Abstract

The One Health perspective recognizes the interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health. It is well established that antimicrobial resistance, particularly to antibiotics, is a One Health issue, as resistance mechanisms can be selected during agricultural practices. However, it is not yet known whether resistance to antifungals in yeasts can also be selected in the environment, as is demonstrated for filamentous fungi. Thus, this study initially aimed to isolate, identify, and determine the antifungal susceptibility profile of medically important yeasts from various sources, including patients, hospital environments, animals (poultry and swines), and the environments where they are raised. One of the yeasts isolated and identified was Kodamaea ohmeri, obtained from patients, animals, and their environments. Due to its emerging nature and high mortality rate described in the literature, this yeast became the main focus of the study. A total of 16 K. ohmeri isolates were identified: three from blood cultures, one from a catheter tip culture, three from animals (swine and poultry), and nine from the animals' environments (swines and poultry). The yeasts were isolated on CHROMagar Candida and identified by MALDI-TOF. On CHROMagar Candida, variation in the color of this yeast was observed depending on the cultivation time, confirming literature data indicating that this species may be underreported due to its characteristics in chromogenic media. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the isolates was determined using broth microdilution tests for clinical antifungals (azoles, echinocandins, pyrimidine analogs, and polyenes), environmental fungicides (tebuconazole, pyraclostrobin, mancozeb, and carbendazim), and hospital disinfectants (quaternary ammonium compounds). All isolates showed low MICs for clinical antifungals, including azoles, echinocandins, amphotericin B, and 5-flucytosine. Overall, the MICs for environmental fungicides and quaternary ammonium based hospital disinfectants were also considered low, similar to the MIC of the control C. albicans strain. Therefore, it is concluded that K. ohmeri, despite being isolated from various sources in Rio Grande do Norte, does not present as a problem of antifungal resistance, whether clinical, environmental, or hospital-based in the present study.