Isolation of antifungal-resistant Candida from the blowholes of captive dolphins.

In this study, we isolated eight strains of Candida albicans from the blowhole air cultures of eight dolphins (one Pacific white-sided dolphin and seven bottlenose dolphins) housed at the Enoshima Aquarium. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of antifungals for these isolates were determined by conducting E-test and broth microdilution assays using the CLSI M27-A3 protocol antifungal susceptibility testing method. Only one of the eight dolphins from which Candida had been isolated had been treated with amphotericin B (AMB), and four had been treated with itraconazole (ITZ).