Occurrence of Dermatophytoses among stray dogs and cats in the city of Kharkiv

Abstract

Spreading of zooanthroponoses in big cities of Ukraine and other countries is connected with the existence of certain group of animals which are sensitive to these diseases. It concerns, first of all, stray dogs and cats which might both be infected and carry infectious agents common for animals and humans. Dermatophytoses are one of the most common zooanthoponotic diseases among stray animals. The goal of this work is to monitor the occurrence of dermatophytoses among stray dogs and cats in the city of Kharkiv. We took into account clinical and epizootic data, as well as results of common microscopic and mycological laboratory studies when diagnosing the dermatophytoses in homeless animals. Studying 723 dogs and 85 cats with clinical signs of skin and fur lesions, we isolated cultures of dermatophytic fungi from 96 dogs (13.3% of animals with skin lesions) and 33 cats (38.8%). The share of pathogenic dermatophytic fungi made 33.4% among dogs with skin and fur lesions and 45.4% among sick cats. The obtained data proves the prevalence of dermatophytoses among stray dogs in Kharkiv and encourages the need of further improvement of eradicative and preventive measures against animal infectious skin diseases.