Microsatellite Typing of Aspergillus flavus Strains in a Tunisian Onco-hematology Unit Soukeina Gheith . Fatma Saghrouni . Anne-Ce ´cile Normand . Wadiaa Bannour . Abderrahim Khelif . Renaud Piarroux . Moncef Ben Said . Mansour Njah . Ste ´phane Ranque Received: 6 July 2015 / Accepted: 4 November 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract Aspergillus flavus is the most common species associated with invasive aspergillosis in Tunisia. The molecular epidemiology of the species is poorly documented. We used five highly discrim- inative microsatellite markers for the genotyping of clinical and hospital environmental A. flavus strains to assess whether IA could be hospital-acquired in the onco-hematology unit of the Farhat Hached teaching hospital of Sousse, Tunisia. The genotyping of 18 clinical isolates, collected from sputa of 17 acute leukemia patients, and 81 isolates, collected in these patients’ hospital environment and food, identified 57 isolates that were grouped in 10 clones, each of them including 2–17 isolates. The remaining 42 isolates showed a unique genotype. Two main transmission scenarios were observed: (1) the same clone was isolated from different patients; (2) the same clone was isolated from a patient, its hospital environment and/or food. These findings strongly suggest the occurrence of hospital-acquired A. flavus infection/colonization in the investigated onco-hematology unit. Keywords Invasive aspergillosis Á Aspergillus flavus Á Microsatellite markers Á Onco-hematology Á Tunisia Introduction Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a major infectious complication in onco-hematology with a high mortal- ity rate despite the introduction of new effective antifungal treatments [1–3]. It mainly affects patients with acute leukemia, due to the depth and duration of neutropenia associated with the treatment of these diseases [4]. In Tunisia, the species most commonly associated with the disease is Aspergillus flavus [5, 6]. The molecular epidemiology of A. flavus is poorly S. Gheith Á W. Bannour Á M. Njah Service d’Hygie `ne Hospitalie `re, CHU Farhat Hached Sousse, 4000 Sousse, Tunisia S. Gheith Á F. Saghrouni Á M. Ben Said Á M. Njah Unite ´ de recherche UR 12SP31, Ministe `re de la Sante ´ Publique, 1006 Tunis, Tunisia S. Gheith (&) Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, CHU Farhat Hached, Rue Ibn Jazzar, 4000 Sousse, Tunisia e-mail: soukeina2gheith@yahoo.fr A.-C. Normand Á R. Piarroux Á S. Ranque Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, CHU Timone- Adultes, Assistance Publique-Ho ˆpitaux de Marseille, 13005 Marseille, France A.-C. Normand Á R. Piarroux Á S. Ranque IP-TPT UMR MD3, Aix-Marseille Universite ´, 13885 Marseille, France A. Khelif Service d’He ´matologie clinique, CHU Farhat Hached, 4000 Sousse, Tunisia 123 Mycopathologia DOI 10.1007/s11046-015-9962-6