Date: 7 May 2013
Copyright: n/a
Notes:
Colonies on CYA 40-60 mm diam, plane or lightly wrinkled, low, dense and velutinous or with a sparse, floccose overgrowth; mycelium inconspicuous, white; conidial heads borne in a continuous, densely packed layer, Greyish Turquoise to Dark Turquoise (24-25E-F5); clear exudate sometimes produced in small amounts; reverse pale or greenish. Colonies on MEA 40-60 mm diam, similar to those on CYA but less dense and with conidia in duller colours (24-25E-F3); reverse uncoloured or greyish. Colonies on G25N less than 10 mm diam, sometimes only germination, of white mycelium. No growth at 5°C. At 37°C, colonies covering the available area, i.e. a whole Petri dish in 2 days from a single point inoculum, of similar appearance to those on CYA at 25°C, but with conidial columns longer and conidia darker, greenish grey to pure grey.
Conidiophores borne from surface hyphae, stipes 200-400 µm long, sometimes sinuous, with colourless, thin, smooth walls, enlarging gradually into pyriform vesicles; vesicles 20-30 µm diam, fertile over half or more of the enlarged area, bearing phialides only, the lateral ones characteristically bent so that the tips are approximately parallel to the stipe axis; phialides crowded, 6-8 µm long; conidia spherical to subspheroidal, 2.5-3.0 µm diam, with finely roughened or spinose walls, forming radiate heads at first, then well defined columns of conidia.
Distinctive features
This distinctive species can be recognised in the unopened Petri dish by its broad, velutinous, bluish colonies bearing characteristic, well defined columns of conidia. Growth at 37°C is exceptionally rapid. Conidial heads are also diagnostic: pyriform vesicles bear crowded phialides which bend to be roughly parallel to the stipe axis. Care should be exercised in handling cultures of this species.
Images library
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in fatal cases of captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis. Multiple granulomatous nodules in the parenchyma, characterized by friable necrotic lesions with distorted anatomy of the organ.
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis as determined by histology. Adherence areas of air sac to the celomic wall and white-yellowish nodule in the liver.
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in fatal cases of captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis. Air sacs thickened with abundant plaque-like caseous and necrotic debris covering the wall with greyish-green fungal colonies on the internal surface.
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in fatal cases of captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis. Air sacs thickened with abundant plaque-like caseous and necrotic debris covering the wall with greyish-green fungal colonies on the internal surface.
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in fatal cases of captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis. Air sacs thickened with abundant plaque-like caseous and necrotic debris covering the wall with greyish-green fungal colonies on the internal surface.
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis.Lung parenchyma with congestion, hemorrhagic and necrotic areas and with multiple white-yellowish granulomatous nodules, ranging from 0.1-1.0 cm in diameter
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis. Lung parenchyma with congestion, hemorrhagic and necrotic areas and with multiple white-yellowish granulomatous nodules, ranging from 0.1-1.0 cm in diameter
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Aspergillosis in penguins. Lesions found in captive Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) with aspergillosis.