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[SANET-MG] Eucalyptus EA by APHIS mised the boat on crytococcus



The article and abstract below deals with a startling finding about Crytococcus in Eucalyptus that was overlooked or ignored in the APHIS EA. Cryptococcus has been observed and flagged as a growing problem in the Pacific Northwest, Washington and Oregon and in Vancouver Island, the fungus is spread in pigeon poop.. The Eucalyptus-Cryptococcus connection has also been widely recognized for some years. Such findings raise questions about what APHIS is doing, is it just public relations for friendly corporations?


GE eucalyptus tree investigation urged

Several U.S. environmental groups are upset concerning a possible link between a pathogenic fungus and genetically engineered eucalyptus trees.

The organizations want the departments of Health & Human Services, Agriculture, Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine if the pathogenic fungal organism Cryptococcus gattii is present in genetically engineered eucalyptus trees being grown by ArborGen LLC in Alabama.

The request was made by the Sierra Club, the Global Justice Ecology Project, The Center for Food Safety, the Dogwood Alliance, and the Southern Forest Network.

"We know the Cryptococcus gattii pathogen is associated with eucalyptus trees in other countries and a federal investigation is urgently needed to fully assess ArborGen's proposed Alabama outdoor field trials of genetically engineered eucalyptus," said Neil Carman of the Sierra Club.

Rachel Smolker, a research biologist with the Global Justice Ecology Project, said "Cryptococcus gattii is considered by the Centers for Disease Control as an 'emerging infectious disease.' Inhalation of spores causes respiratory and central nervous system infection leading to fatal fungal meningitis."

Med Mycol. 2005 Sep;43(6):565-9.Links
Isolation of Cryptococcus gattii and Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii from the flowers and bark of Eucalyptus trees in India. Gugnani HC, Mitchell TG, Litvintseva AP, Lengeler KB, Heitman J, Kumar A, Basu S, Paliwal-Joshi A.

Department of Medical Mycology, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, India.

The association of Cryptococcus gattii with Eucalyptus trees has been well established. Here we report the isolation of both C. gattii and Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii from the flowers and bark of Eucalyptus trees in India. We investigated a total of 233 samples of Eucalyptus trees: 120 flowers, 81 fragments of bark, and 32 leaves. C. gattii was isolated from two samples of flowers of Eucalyptus terreticornis. C. neoformans var. grubii was recovered twice from the bark of Eucalyptus camaldulensis, initially from one of three samples, and again 2 months later, from one of four samples collected beneath the canopy of the tree. The primary isolation medium was Nigerseed agar, and brown colonies were presumptively identified as C. gattii or C. neoformans. The species identification was confirmed by morphological and biochemical characteristics. Using the Crypto-Check kit (Iatron, Tokyo, Japan), the first two isolates were identified as serotype B (C. gattii) and the other two were serotype A (C. neoformans var. grubii). PCR analysis of the isolates of C. neoformans var. grubii revealed that they possessed the MATalpha mating type allele. Molecular typing by amplified fragment length polymorphism markers indicated that both isolates of C. neoformans var. grubii possessed the same genotype. This study demonstrates that C. neoformans var. grubii, as well as C. gattii, may be associated with Eucalyptus trees.

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