Antifungal Resistance Characterization of Food Borne Pathogenic Fungi from India.

Food borne diseases are increasing globally and disease-causing fungi are becoming resistant to antifungal agents. Errors in food processing technology, irresponsible health and hygiene measures are responsible for widespread of antifungal diseases. The health hazards of such antifungal resistant pathogens are life threatening and also puts economic burden on the patient. This study determined antifungal resistance of fungi isolated from roadside food vendors from Lucknow and Pune, India. A total of 374 food samples were collected for this study. The food samples were analysed in laboratory using prepared quantitative media and identified by conventional lactophenol cotton blue staining. Confirmed fungal isolates were further subjected to antifungal susceptibility testing by the Agar disc diffusion technique. Results showed that 110 fungal isolates showed resistance to more than three antifungal agents. The multiple antifungal resistance exhibited by the fungi in this study is an indication of possible multidrug resistant fungal strains present in roadside food items. Therefore, roadside food vendors as well as common people should be made more aware regarding food borne fungal diseases caused due to multidrug resistant pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]