Rodent is potential reservoir of zoonoses fungi in Jakarta, Indonesia

Some potentially human pathogenic fungi are known to be zoonoses. Rodent is one of potential reservoir of fungi. To date, little is known about the role of rodent in transmitting fungal disease in Indonesia. Therefore, purpose of this study was to find evidence of potential fungal zoonoses in rodent. We caught two house rats, one rat was from the house of patient suffering from talaromycosis and the other one was from a healthy person house. These rats internal organs (lung, liver, and spleen) were inoculated onto sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) and SDA with additional of chloramphenicol. Fungi grown in the medium were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) continued by sequence-based approach. In addition PCR was also conducted using primers developed from beta tubulin gene. Amplified regions were sequenced and compared to database that contains reference sequences. We found three fungal species. Talaromyces atroroseus was isolated from the rat that caught from the house of patient with talaromycosis, while Purpureocillium lilacinum and Penicillium citrinum were isolated from the other rat caught in the house of healthy individual. Although naturally could be found in the environment, these species had been reported to cause fatal systemic mycosis in human. In conclusion Talaromyces atroroseus, Purpureocillium lilacinum and P. citrinum could be found in rat. This result indicates that rat could be a reservoir for these fungi.