Isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans from pigeon droppingscollected throughout Turkey

The six hundred and thirty-four samples of pigeon droppings were collected throughout Turkey, from 54 of 80 provinces. Cryptococcus neoformans was iso lated from 29 (4.6%, overall) of 634 samples and 29 isolates were from 18 p rovinces. Interestingly, 16 (88.9%) of these provinces occur on the three d ifferent coastlines of Turkey, therefore the ecological role of a humid cli mate was speculated. Almost all isolates [28/29] were recovered from sample s collected from roofs (n = 14) and dovecotes (n = 14). All isolates were f ound to be C. neoformans var. neoformans.