The activity of azole fungicides for agronomical use (epoxiconazole, difenoconazole and cyproconazole) was evaluated in comparison with the therapeutic antifungal agent fluconazole, on 23 environmental samples of Cryptococcus neoformans var neoformans isolated from pigeon feces that were collected from farms with agricultural practices using azole compounds, and on 11 clinical samples isolated from patients with cryptococcosis. Sensitivity tests were performed using the agar dilution technique. The minimum inhibitory concentration capable of inhibiting 50% of the environmental isolates (MIC 50) was 6.00µg/ml to epoxiconazole, 1.00µg/ml for difenoconazole, 2.00µg/ml for cyproconazole and 64.00µg/ml for fluconazole. Among the clinical isolates the MIC 50 values were 2.00µg/ml, 0.38µg/ml, 1.00µg/ml and 16.00µg/ml for epoxiconazole, difenoconazole, cyproconazole and fluconazole, respectively. The MIC 50 values for environmental isolates were greater than the MIC 50 values for clinical isolates. In our study, in relation to the same antifungal agent, the environmental samples presented significantly different behaviour in relation to the clinical samples (p<0.05). Differences in the MIC values (p<0.05) presented by fluconazole and the other antifungal agents for agronomical use, both in the environmental isolates and in the clinical isolates, were also observed.
Cryptococcus neoformans; Azole fungicides; Resistance; Environmental isolates; Clinical isolates
