Dermatophytoses in Animals

Mycopathologia (2008) 166:385405 DOI 10.1007/s11046-008-9102-7

Dermatophytoses in Animals

Ren Chermette Laerte Ferreiro Jacques Guillot

Received: 15 October 2007 / Accepted: 30 January 2008 / Published online: 14 May 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Abstract Dermatophytoses are one of the most frequent skin diseases of pets and livestock. Contagiousness among animal communities, high cost of treatment, difculty of control measures, and the public health consequences of animal ringworm explain their great importance. A wide variety of dermatophytes have been isolated from animals, but a few zoophilic species are responsible for the majority of the cases, viz. Microsporum canis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Trichophyton equinum and Trichophyton verrucosum, as also the geophilic species Microsporum gypseum. According to the host and the fungal species involved, the typical aspect of dermatophytic lesions may be modied. As a consequence, an accurate clinical examination, a good differential diagnosis and laboratory analyses are required for a correct identication. Few antifungal

agents are available and licenced for use in veterinary practice, and the use of systemic drugs is limited in livestock due to the problems of residues in products intended for human consumption. The high resistance of the dermatophyte arthroconidia in the environment, the multiplicity of host species, and the connement of animals in breedings are cause of an enzootic situation in many cases. Prevention is difcult, but research development on the immune response to dermatophytes and the use of vaccination, especially in cattle, have brought some interesting results.

Keywords Animal Dermatophytosis

Dermatology Diagnosis Epidemiology

Treatment

Dermatophytoses, also called ringworm or tinea, are cosmopolitan contagious mycoses of the skin that are due to dermatophytes and concern a wide range of mammals, including man, and more rarely birds. Animals can be infected by a great variety of dermatophytes, mostly zoophilic but also geophilic species, and exceptionally anthropophilic dermatophytes (Table 1). The main clinical features of those mycoses are regular alopecia with erythema and squamosis, usually non-pruriginous although various degree of inammation may modify this typical aspect.

R. Chermette (&) J. Guillot

Service de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Ecole Nationale Vtrinaire dAlfort, 7 Avenue du Gnral de Gaulle, Maisons Alfort Cedex 94704, Francee-mail: [e-mail]

R. Chermette J. Guillot

INRA, AFSSA, ENVA, UMR 956, Biologie Moleculaire et Immunologie Parasitaires et Fongiques,Ecole Nationale Vtrinaire dAlfort,Maisons Alfort Cedex, France

L. FerreiroSetor de...