Feline sporotrichosis

Abstract

A wide diversity of emerging fungal diseases has affected humans and animals in recent decades. Several diseases are caused by pathogens of animal origin, which sometimes affect the human host due to close contact between humans and companion animals. Sporotrichosis is an example of how cat-human interactions can lead to zoonotic transmission of a disease and increases the incidence of the mycosis to epidemic levels observed in South and Southeast Brazil. Human and animal sporotrichosis is an infection that is classically acquired by inoculation of contaminated materials into the host's cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues. Feline transmission (cat-cat and cat-human) through scratching and biting is an alternative transmission route that is highly effective, putting a larger number of individuals at risk of acquiring the infection. The main etiological agent of feline sporotrichosis is Sporothrix brasiliensis, a highly pathogenic organism to the mammalian host. In this chapter, we discuss the main advances in taxonomy, ecology, epidemiology, diagnostics, host-parasite interactions, and treatments related to this disease.