Cross-sectional study reveals nasal colonization by opportunistic yeasts such as Naganishia albida in dogs, highlighting baseline carriage patterns relevant for veterinary diagnostics.
Key Points
To investigate nasal carriage and molecularly characterize Cryptococcus-related and opportunistic yeasts in dogs, evaluating the epidemiological features of Naganishia albida carriage.
Collected nasal swab samples from N=100 boarded or hospitalized dogs across 4 provinces in Türkiye between July and December 2023.
Identified recovered yeast isolates using phenotypic methods, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequencing, and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS).
Retrospectively reviewed the 1-year clinical history of dogs testing positive for N albida carriage.
Identified 79 yeast isolates representing 31 species across 59 dogs (59%), while zero Cryptococcus neoformans/gattii complex organisms were recovered.
Isolated Naganishia albida from 12% of dogs and Papiliotrema laurentii from 1% of dogs.
Detected N albida in both clinically healthy and diseased dogs, showing no statistically significant associations between carriage and evaluated epidemiological variables.