Are all psittacine birds carriers of Cryptococcus neoformans?

We read with great interest the article entitled “First isolation of Cryptococcus gattii molecular type VGII and Cryptococcus neoformans molecular type VNI from environmental sources in the city of Belém, Pará, Brazil”. The report describes the most recent observation of the presence of Cryptococcus in the normal microbiota of healthy psittacine birds maintained in captivity in Brazil, similarly to the results of Abegg et al. (2006), who identified this yeast in Aratinga leucophthalmus, Aratinga aurea, Aratinga jandaya, Pionus maximiliani, Nymphicus hollandicus, Psittacula eupatria, Nandayus nenday, Amazona festiva, Amazona rhodocorytha and Amazona farinose. Lugarini et al. (2008) also found this yeast in Melopsittacus undulatus and Myiopsitta monachus and Santos et al. (2009) found it in Aratinga solstitialis and Amazona aestiva. Despite the number of reported species harbouring Cryptococcus, Costa et al. (2009) did not report the species of birds in which Cryptococcus was isolated. Thus, readers could misinterpret this report and assume that all psittacine birds are carriers of this yeast. In addition, the citation of this article might compromise future surveys. We would like to suggest to the editors that an additional note be published that addresses this matter because the detection of Cryptococcus in previously undescribed species has great importance in terms of public health given its potential to cause disease.