Characterization and anti-fungal susceptibility pattern of dermatophytes isolated from dogs, cats and pet owners in and around Kolkata, India

Pet animals mostly suffer from dermatophytic infections and these animals can easily transmit the infection to their handlers or pet owners. Study of 362 clinically suspected cases of dermatophytic infections collected mainly from dogs (n=123), cats (n=202) and few pet owners (n=37) in and around Kolkata, was conducted to detect a total of 285 (78.7%) samples to be positive for significant dermatophytic fungal infections, with cats to be the highest in prevalence (55.4%) followed by dogs (37.9%) and human beings (6.7%) respectively. Microsporum canis (60.0%) was the most prevalent pathogen in comparison to M. gypseum (22.5%), Trychophyton mentagrophytes (15.8%) and T. rubrum (1.7%) affecting dogs, cats and human beings. T rubrum was detected only from human cases in this study. Male dogs (58.3%), cats (51.3%) and human patients (78.9%) were mostly infected than the female ones. The anti-fungal susceptibility pattern of these isolates revealed lower MIC50 values of 0.06-0.125 mu g/ml for Ketoconazole, Itraconazole, Miconazole, and Amphotericin-B but not for Fluconazole (8-16 mu g/ml). The MIC90 values of these antifungal agents were as low as 0.03 mu g/ml for all drugs except Fluconazole (32 mu g/ml).