Swinepox Virus Outbreak, Brazil, 2011

showing phenotypic characteristics typical of S. mexicana and S. schenckii (2). In contrast, type reference strain S. brasiliensis CBS 120339 was included in the test, and it was able to assimilate only dextrose. A presumptive identifi cation based on phenotypic characteristics allowed us to classify this fungus as S. mexicana, although this species has an atypical morphologic profi le. The diameter of colonies grown at 30°C and 37°C are smaller than those proposed by Marimon and collaborators but much closer to those of S. schenckii (2). These differences could be attributable to the intraspecifi c variation of this single isolate. Genomic DNA was obtained from the yeast phase of S. mexicana MUM 11.02, and the partial sequencing of the nuclear calmodulin gene was based on the amplicon generated by PCR reaction by using CL1 and CL2A primers (2,3). Sequencing was performed at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A BLAST analysis (www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/BLAST) comparing the sequence of the calmodulin gene with sequences AM398382, AM398393, AM117444, AM116899, and AM116908 in the GenBank database confi rmed the identity of this isolate as S. mexicana. The MUM 11.02 isolate showed 99% similarity with the sequences of S. mexicana (i.e., GenBank accession no. AM398393) with high bootstrap support values (Figure, panel B). The calmodulin sequence of MUM 11.02 was deposited in GenBank as JF970258. In vitro susceptibility tests with fl uconazole, itraconazole, and terbinafi ne were performed by the microdilution method (9) and revealed MICs of 128 μg/mL, 32 μg/ mL, and 0.5–1.0 μg/mL, respectively, which corresponds to the fi ndings of Marimon et al. (1) for S. mexicana. Thus, S. mexicana is an emerging cause of human sporotrichosis. Financial support for this work was provided by Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Grant Proc. E-26/111.619/2008). R.M.Z.O. is in part supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científi co e Tecnológico 350338/2000-0.