Dermatophytosis in Cats: Clinical Signs and Identification of Etiological Agent

Fungal infection by dermatophytosis is a zoonotic disease distributed globally and well concern in public health. This study aimed to investigate clinical signs and the etiological agents of dermatophytosis in cats in Yogyakarta. A total of 69 cats were observed in this study. Physical examination, by using Wood’s lamp, and microscopic examination of hyphae on the skin was used for preliminary screening of dermatophytosis. Identification of fungi was conducted by scrapping area infection of the skin and then cultured on Dermatophyte Test Medium (DTM) for macroscopic and microscopic examination. The results of this study demonstrated that dermatophytosis in cats is characterized by the presence of multifocal alopecia, scale, pruritus, and erythema on the skin with a specific formation. The dominant clinical lesion was alopecia followed by crust and erythema, stated at 75.8%, 42.8%, and 1.86% respectively. Physical examination showed that 55 cats (79.7%) were positive fungal infections by using direct Wood’s lamp examination and skin scrappings. Moreover, the identification of agents demonstrated that 58 (84%) and 11 (16%) of cats were infected by M. canis and T. mentagrophytes, respectively. Besides clinical signs, Wood’s lamp, and microscopic examination, the gold standard for M. canis idenification is Dermatophyte Test Medium. © 2023 by the authors. Licensee ResearchersLinks Ltd, England, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).