Temperate Climate Niche for Cryptococcus gattii in Northern Europe

Abstract

To the Editor: Cryptococcus gattii was considered to be geographically restricted to countries with tropical and subtropical climates until 1999, when an outbreak of cryptococcosis in humans and animals occurred in the temperate climate of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada (1). Montagna et al. reported the first environmental C. gattii in Europe from the Mediterranean region of Italy; these authors isolated it from 11 (4.3%) of 255 samples of plant detritus of Eucalyptus camaldulensis trees collected from the residential locality of an autochthonous case of cryptococcal meningitis caused by C. gattii in Apulia (2). These observations were recently substantiated by the isolation of C. gattii from plant debris of trees belonging to Ceratonia siliqua (carob), Pinus halepensis (stone pine), and E. camaldulensis in Spain (3). We report environmental isolation of the primary pathogenic fungus C. gattii from a forest in Berg en Dal, the Netherlands, which extends its geographic distribution to the temperate climate of northern Europe.