Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is the Year of Rabbit in 1999 in Korea, so rabbit becomes an popular pet animal. At the same time, there seems to be an important increase in dermatophytoses in human as a result of frequent contact with rabbits in early 1999 in Taegu, Korea.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose is to investigate the clinical and mycological features of rabbits and human, and their correlation.

METHODS: Twenty-one cases with dermatophytoses, transmitted from infected rabbits, were evaluated from January to March, 1999. Mycological study were carried out from the lesions of rabbits and human.

RESULTS: Trichophyton(T.) mentagrophytes, granulosum-asteroides form, were isolated from all the lesions of rabbits and human as an causative dermatophyte. The infected rabbits aged 8~12 weeks. The lesions showed 1.0~4.0 cm-sized, inflamed alopecia covered with whitish-gray crusts. Predominant sites were face, neck, abdomen, and legs. Human infections showed a high incidence of teens (76.2%), and female predominance (2 times), and mainly being tinea faciale and tinea corporis. The lesions were 0.5~4.0 cm-sized ring-shaped scaly patches with intense inflammation, averaging 4.5 in number per capita. The presumed incubation period was about 2 weeks. Experimental rabbit inoculation test with isolates of rabbits and human resulted in the same typical tinea lesions about 15~20 days after inoculation. It took almost 4 weeks for treatment of both rabbits and human infections.

CONCLUSION: Zoophilic T. mentagrophytes, as an etiological source and/or reservoir in rabbits, can be frequently transmitted to human. In the epidemiologic respects, prevention of spread of dennatophytes from rabbits or other pet animals is the most important.

Keywords

Epidemiology Rabbits Trichophyton mentagrophytes

KJMM 1999 December;4(2):117-123(7). Epub 2016 February 23
Copyright © 1999 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

Korean/English

Author

Sang Won Kim; Department of Dermatology, Catholic University of Taegu-Hyosung, school of Medicine, Taegu, Korea
Hyo Chan Jang; Department of Dermatology, Catholic University of Taegu-Hyosung, school of Medicine, Taegu, Korea

Corresponding

Sang Won Kim, Department of Dermatology, Catholic University of Taegu-Hyosung, school of Medicine, Taegu, Korea.

Publication history

Acknowledgements

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sang Won Kim

Department of Dermatology, Catholic University of Taegu-Hyosung, school of Medicine, Taegu, Korea

Hyo Chan Jang

Department of Dermatology, Catholic University of Taegu-Hyosung, school of Medicine, Taegu, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 23