Dog and cat Dermatophytoses: eleven years of diagnostic activity at the laboratory of Mycology

This paper presents a survey, limited to dogs and cats, on the results obtained from the epidemiological analysis of 11 years data (January 2000/December 2010) of routine dermatophytoses diagnostic activities, developed at the Laboratory of Mycology of the Department of Veterinary Medical Science (Ozzano Emilia-Bologna). The aim was to observe the possible evolution over time of an important pathology for aesthetic, clinical, economic and, not least, social impact, because of ringworm of dogs and cats can be zoonotic infections. A total of 3778 animals (1518 dogs and 2260 cats) with lesions or asymptomatic were examined. The samples were collected by skin scarification or brush’s technique and sent to our laboratory from vets or collected directly at the facilities of the Department. Diagnosis of ringworm was made by culture on Mycosel agar (BBL), incubated at least 10 days at 26 ° C. The identification of dermatophytes was performed on the basis of macro- and microscopic characteristics (Rebell and Taplin, 1974, Dermatophytes, their recognition and identification, University of Miami Press). Records for individual subjects were collected in a database and the data obtained were analyzed: χ2 test was used to compare the presence/absence of M. canis with different host characteristics (breed, sex, age, origin, clinical state, i.e. presence/absence of lesions), and year. RESULTS -: Cats were significantly (p<0.01) more infected with dermatophytes (32%) than dogs (7.5%). Microsporum canis was more frequently isolated (30.6% cats and 4.5% dogs). Other dermatophytes were isolates, alone or in some cases in association with M. canis: these were mainly M.gypseum (1.7% dog and 0.7% cats) and T. mentagrophytes (1.2% dogs and 0.2% cats); occasionally also T. terrestre and M. cookei were found. For M.canis, the number of asymptomatic carriers were significantly (p <0.01) higher in cats (69%) than in dogs (2.8%). Persian cats were significantly related to a higher prevalence of M. canis than other cats breed, while as regards to the dogs, there was impossible to obtain this data due to the high variability of the examined breeds. The prevalence of M. canis was significantly greater in young animals (<12 months) than in older individuals and in females cats than males cats (p <0.01), whereas no sex differences were found in dogs. Feral cats were significantly more positive (p <0.01) compared to owned cats. The owners of cats positive for M. canis had more frequently ringworm (21.5%) that the owner of dogs positive (13.2%), but the difference was not significant