SEASONAL VARIATION OF THE UPPER DIGESTIVE TRACT YEAST FLORA OF FERAL PIGEONS

¹ U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland 20810, U.S.A.
² Laboratory of Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014, U.S.A.

Feral pigeons were sampled over a 16-month period to determine whether their normal yeast flora varied according to season. Candida albicans and Saccharomyces telluris occurred during the entire sampling period, with C. albicans reaching its highest levels between August and January and S. telluris peaking from March through May. Candida krusei was present for 10 months but exhibited no predictable variation in density. Candida tropicalis, C. guilliermondii and Geotrichum were isolated on several occasions while C. lusitaniae, C. pseudotropicalis and Torulopsis glabrata were each isolated once. The high levels of infection and frequency of occurrence of some yeast species make the feral pigeon highly suspect as a carrier and disseminator of potentially pathogenic yeast.