Zoophiilc dermatophytes are basically animal pathogens, but all can cause dermatophytoses in man. Accordingly animals with dermatophytes are an important source of human dermatophytoses, since zoophilic dermatophytes are frequently transmitted directly or indirectly from domestic or wild animals to man through the use of the se animal as pets, or through contact in rural araes. With the recent increased incidence of zoophilic dermatophytoses worldwide,it is consided to be an important public health problem in view of its epidemiologie aspect i.e. its simultaneous occurence in families or groups. To this time, Microsporum canis in cats has only been sporadically reported throughout the country in the late 1970s and very little is additionally known of the zoopbilic species in animal populations and reservoir or host animals in Korea. Therefore, the authors performed a mycological study by culturing hair and skin lesions of 100 dornestic and 64 zoo animals fortnightly for the purgose of isolating zoophilic derrnatophytes and thereby recognizing the reservoir animals. We also performed an experimental derrnatophyte inoculation in human, mice and rabbits by using Microsporum canis, Trichopyton mentagrophyte vagranulare and Microsporum gypseum isolated from animals and patients lesions from Jan. l980 through Jun. 1981, for the comparison of pathogenicity of these dermatophytes species on human and animals and also for the comparison of pathogenicity of strains isolated from patients lesions and animals and thereby considered different from each other. Microsporum canis was isolated from 11 cats. Trichophyton mentagrophyte var granulare from 3 cats, and Microsporum gypseum from 2 Korean racoon dogs.
Animals ; Animals, Wild ; Animals, Zoo ; Arthrodermataceae* ; Cats ; Dogs ; Hair ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Mice ; Microsporum ; Public Health ; Rabbits ; Skin ; Tinea ; Trichophyton ; Virulence*