Prevalence and characterization of Microsporum canis carriage in cats.
Mignon, Bernard; Losson, Bertrand
1997 • In Journal of Medical and Veterinary Mycology: Bi-Monthly Publication of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology, 35 (4), p. 249-256
[en] In order to determine the prevalence and to characterize the carriage of Microsporum canis in cats, different mycological examinations (including a culture obtained by hair brushing and Wood's light examination) were performed on 632 animals of different origins. Group 1 comprised 467 healthy pet cats belonging to veterinary students. In this group, prevalence of carriage was 2.1%: eight cats were asymptomatic transient carriers and one cat was an asymptomatic infected animal presenting discrete Wood's-positive lesions disseminated on the whole body that were visible after sedation and clipping. The carriage prevalence was higher (15.7%) in group 2 comprising 134 European cats destroyed in a pound and kept together. In two additional groups of cats, it was shown that an infected cat was responsible for the dissemination of fungal material into its environment including the other in-contact animals. When the active source of fungus was removed, the dissemination stopped, resulting in a decrease in the amount of infective material recovered from both the animal carriers and the environmental surfaces. This was also observed in two experimental groups of guinea pigs. No association between feline immunodeficiency virus infection and the M. canis carriage was observed in a retrospective case-control study performed on group 2. None of these cats was feline leukaemia virus positive.
Disciplines :
Veterinary medicine & animal health
Author, co-author :
Mignon, Bernard ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires > Parasitologie et pathologie des maladies parasitaires
Losson, Bertrand ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires > Parasitologie et pathologie des maladies parasitaires
Language :
English
Title :
Prevalence and characterization of Microsporum canis carriage in cats.
Publication date :
1997
Journal title :
Journal of Medical and Veterinary Mycology: Bi-Monthly Publication of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology
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