Sporotrichosis is caused by a dimorphic fungus, Spo-rothrix schenckii, which exists in the environment in soil and decaying vegetable matter contaminated by the fungus (1). It favours tropical and subtropical climate zones and is the cause of the most common subcutaneous mycosis in South America.Zoonotic transmission is rare worldwide, but in Brazil epidemics of sporotrichosis have been reported in humans who have been in close contact with infected cats (2). The mode of transmission is via cutaneous inocula-tion of the organism. We report here a rare case of osteoarticular sporotrichosis in a previously healthy 39-year-old woman, who was living in a shanty town in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.