Current status of prevalence of yeast-like fungi in the environment of horses bred in Poland / Aktualny status występowania grzybów drożdżopodobnych w środowisku hodowlanym koni w Polsce

This study presents an analysis of the yeast-like fungi population in the healthy horses’ living environment. The study material was sampled from various elements and equipment of a stable. We compared the yeast-like fungi population from the breeding environment of five groups of horses (English Thoroughbred horses, Arabian horses, Polish Half-Bred horses, cold-blooded horses, and Hucul horses and Highland ponies). The samples were collected in the summer and winter period. The laboratory examination involved 260 samples and resulted in identification of yeast-like fungi belonging to 13 species. Over 50% of the samples collected from the horse environment in wintertime and fewer than 18% of the summer samples displayed fungal growth. The largest amounts of yeast fungi were isolated from samples collected from water and feed troughs. The laboratory analysis demonstrated qualitative diversity of the yeast-like fungi population depending on the breeding environment of the individual horse groups. Quantitative differences of isolates were additionally related to the season of the year.