Volume 18, Number 1—January 2012 Temperate Climate Niche for
Cryptococcus gattii in Northern Europe 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