Objective To compare the carriage of dematiaceous fungi in wild toads from both en-demic area and non-epidemic area of chromoblastomycosis.Methods A total of354and45wild toads(Bufo Chinese)were caught from two counties of Shandong Province,Zhangqiu county,an endemic area of chromoblastomycosis,and from Laiyang county,an area where the infection of dematiaceous fungi in humans has not been found,respectively.The toads were killed and the suspension of the internal organs were used to isolate dematiaceous fungi.Results Eleven species including162strains of dematiaceous fungi were iso-lated from151of354(42.7%)toads from the endemic area.The isolated strains consisted of49Phialopho-ra verrucosa,33Exsophiala,19Phialophora(nonpathogenic),19E.jenselmei,12Cladosporium carrionii,3suspected of C.carrionii,7Rhinocladiella sp.,5Fonsecaea pedrosoi,4C.trichoides,3E.spinifera,1C.mi-nourae,4unidentified.Only4nonpathogenic dematiaceous fungi were isolated from4of45(8.9%)toads obtained from non-epidemic area.Conclusions Varieties of pathogenic dematiaceous fungi,especially C.carrionii,are isolated from wild toads in endemic area of chromoblastomycosis,while none from non-endemic area.The results suggest that the colonization of pathogenic dematiaceous fungi in wild toads may be associa-ted with endemicity of chromoblastomycosis.