Keratinophilic fungi from the duck nails in Egypt

The mycoflora of one hundred and sixty of duck nail samples, collected from the duck Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, were examined. Using the soil plate technique and Sabouraud's dextrose agar, thirty six species appertaining to twenty genera of keratinophilic fungi were isolated. Chrysosporium was the genus most frequently isolated (50% of the samples). Aspergillus and Penicillium occurred in low incidences (13.1 and 12.5% of total samples). Trichophyton rubrum was found to colonize few of the duck nail samples (2.5%) as well as some other fungal species previously reported as pathogenic to man and animals (Aspergillus fumigatus, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis and Paecilomyces lilacinus).