Fungal diseases of poultry have become problematic as bacterial and viral
diseases. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the prevalence of
fungal agents in broiler chickens suffering from respiratory disorders. The
prevalence rate of fungal isolation was 53.1% including mycelia fungi (42%)
and yeast isolates (11.1%). Mould isolates were identified as Aspergillus
fumigatus (21.7%), Aspergillus flavus (8.4%), Aspergillus niger (8.4%),
Aspergillus nidulans (1.3%), Cladosporium spp. (0.4%) and Penicillium spp.
(1.8%). Concerning yeast isolates, Candida spp. was the most predominant
which were identified as C. albicans, C. pseudotropicalis (2.7% each), C.
krusei, C. regosa (2.2% each), and C. stellatoidea (0.4%). Moreover, one
Cryptococcus sp. was recovered and identified as C. neoformans (0.9%). PCR
assay using oligonucleotide primer amplifying a 570 bp fragment based on
ITS region gene was conducted on randomly selected 9 isolates including 6
Aspergillus spp. (A. flavus, A. niger, A. fumigates; 2 each) as well as 3 yeast
isolates (two isolates of C. albicans and one isolate of C. neoformans). All
tested isolates had positive reactions.