AIM: To evaluate the incidence of fungi in the ocular conjunctiva of sugar-cane cutting workers as well in a sugar-cane plantation environment. PLACE: Monte Belo - MG, Eye Clinic, Laboratory of Physiology and Biology of Microorganisms of Unifenas, Alfenas - MG. METHODS: Swabs were made from the ocular conjunctiva of one hundred workers of both sexes and material was collected from leaves, stalk, and the environmental air from the sugar-cane plantation. These were inoculated in specific mold media. After incubation at 25°C for a period of fifteen days, the plates were analyzed and colony forming units (ufc) were identified using conventional mycological techniques. RESULTS: Of one hundred workers involved in this research, 64 presented one or more genera of fungi, 54 (84.38%) being identified in males and 10 (15.62%) identified in females. The separation of the workers by age range showed that the prevalence of observed fungi by age was not uniform. The highest incidences were found in advanced age ranges, the increase of positivity by age being considered statistically significant (p<0.05). The lowest prevalence (50%) was found in the 11-20-year-old interval, which presents the lowest number of examined persons. The highest positivity was verified in the 61-79 year interval. In 60 workers (93.75%) only one genus was isolated; in 3 (4.69%) two genera, and in only one worker (1.56%) three genera were isolated. The most prevalent isolated fungi were Fusarium sp (43.76%) and Geotrichum sp (23.44%), followed by Cladosporium sp (9.38%), Penicillium sp (7.81%), Mucor sp (9.38%) and Oidium sp (7.81%). The most common genus founded in leaves, stalk and air were Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Cladosporium and Rhizopus. CONCLUSION: The environmental conditions, the socioeconomic status and the general and personal poor hygienic conditions, together with lack of information about prophylactic standards, surely led to the high incidence of ocular conjunctiva fungus isolation (67%). The incidence was much higher in males (84.38%) as (15.62%) in females. The anemophilious fungi and those isolated from stalk and leaves were similar to those already described in the literature. The isolated filamentous fungi were much more numerous than yeast, there being some correlation between these and the conjunctiva isolates.
Fungi; Conjunctiva; Eye diseases; Saccharum; Agricultural worker's diseases
