Fungal infections of the skin are common in animals worldwide; these infections can be transmitted to other animals or humans and cause skin infections and other, more-generalized infections.
Drs. Bożena Dworecka-Kaszak, Małgorzata Biegańska and Iwona Dąbrowska from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland took samples from a host of animals to determine what organisms were causing the fungal infections. The team used 5,335 hair, skin scraping, skin and ear swab samples over a 10-year period to look for different organisms. These samples came from 4,150 dogs, 689 cats, 274 horses, 88 rodents, 11 birds and 123 other pets. Of those, 2,399 were from animals that were diagnosed with dermatitis.
The fungi that was most-frequently isolated from skin lesions were Malassezia pachydermatis (29.14 percent), Candida yeasts (27.07 percent), and dermatophytes (23.5 percent). Alternaria molds alone were found in 127 samples. These molds are plentiful in soil, air and water, as well as on the surface of human and animal skin.
Infections from molds like Alternaria have become an emerging issue for equine veterinarians. Concern is being raised that this fungus may mechanically damage the tissue surrounding the infection. The conclude that this fungi should be considered as a cause of skin infections based on the number of skin samples that showed Alternaria as the only infection-causing organism.
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Read the full study here.
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