S9.4d Main reservoirs of Trichophyton mentagrophytes Type V in Iran

Abstract S9.4 Skin mycoses and microbiome, September 23, 2022, 4:45 PM - 6:15 PM Objectives Dermatophytosis in livestock receives attention because of its contagiousness, high treatment costs, and lack of control programs. Compared with cattle, mycological aspects of dermatophytosis in sheep and goats have been studied less frequently. Dermatophytosis in these animals (small ruminants) may lead to serious economic losses due to the negative impact on the growth of involved animals, as well as their milk and meat production. Recent studies showed that the old Trichophyton verrucosum var. verrucosum (which is known to have some African and Asiatic sheep as its reservoirs) is currently synonymous with T. mentagrophytes Type V, the most common genotype of T. mentagrophytes isolated from Iranian patients. But the animal reservoirs of this genotype are not well known in Iran and in this investigation, we aimed to determine them. Methods A total of 678 skin and hair samples from animals including sheep (n = 190), cows (n = 79), goats (n = 9), camels (n = 20), stray and domestic cats (n = 195), stray and pet dogs (n = 146), horses (n = 27), foxes (n = 2), hedgehogs (n = 2), and poultries (n = 8) were subjected to direct microscopy and culture on Mycobiotic agar. Most animals had skin lesions, though some stray cats and dogs were asymptomatic. Molecular identification of dermatophyte cultures was done by ITS-rDNA RFLP. To confirm the RFLP identification, 59 representative isolates from all studied animal species were subjected to ITS-rDNA sequencing. The likelihood for isolation of a specific species or genotype with regard to the type of infected animal was determined using the chi-square test. Results We obtained 334 dermatophyte cultures. ITS-RFLP and ITS region sequencing revealed the species T. verrucosum (n = 62; all from cows), T. mentagrophytes Type V (sheep = 95; goat = 6; cat = 1; horse = 2), T. mentagrophytes Type II* (cat = 2), T. mentagrophytes Type VII (dog = 2), Microsporum canis (cats, n = 94; dogs, n = 55; cow, n = 1; horse, n = 1), T. quinckeanum (fox, n = 1), Nannizzia gypsea (cats, n = 5; dogs, n = 4; cow, n = 1; horse, n = 1), and N. fulva (cow, n = 1). No dermatophytes were isolated from camels, hedgehogs, and poultries. There was a statistically significant difference in the isolation rate of T. mentagrophytes Type V between sampled animals meaning that with a high probability it is isolated from sheep and goats. Conclusion Purposive sampling from suspected animals confirmed that sheep are the main animal reservoir of T. mentagrophytes Type V, at least in Iran. Further international sequence-based investigations can test our conclusion.