The pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana in the rabbit cornea.

Abstract

Summary: To study and compare the pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana with that of Candida albicans in the cornea, we produced experimental B. bassiana and C. albicans keratitis in rabbits and studied the infected eyes clinically and histopathologically. The corneal lesions were examined every day for three weeks and the severity of infections was compared. For histopathologic study, the eyes were enucleated at various times. B. bassiana produced substantially less severe clinical infections in the cornea, compared to C. albicans. Histopathologically, B. bassiana showed little growth in the cornea, and no invasion into the anterior chamber. We considered that B. bassiana has very weak pathogenicity in the cornea, which may explain the small number of cases of keratomycosis caused by this fungus.