Isolation and Identification of Potential Zoonotic Dermatophytes from Domestic Camels in Dhamar Area, Yemen

Abstract

Dermatophytosis is a prevalent skin disease in Yemen. Because it's zoonotic transmission to humans, animal dermatophytosis has a major concern. The present study was thus aimed to isolate and identify dermatophytes from domestic camels. A purposive study was conducted among 165 suspected camels in Dhamar area, Yemen. Skin scrapings were collected from ringworm lesions of the study animals. They were microscopically examined using Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) preparation. Specimens that showed a positive result were then cultured on Sabouraud's Dextrose Agar (SDA) for identification. A total of 159 (96.4%) of the suspected camels were found to be infected with fungal infection during the direct KOH examination. The infection was significantly higher among young animals of ≤ 12 months (94.3%, χ 2 = 73, P < 0.05). Majority of the cultured specimens showed positive growth (93.1%, χ 2 = 118, P < 0.05). The overall rate of dermatophyte infection was 83.11%. The frequency of Trichophyton and Microsporum genera were 89.4% and 10.6% of the isolated genera, respectively. The identified species were T. schoenlenii T. verrucosum, T. mentagrophytes, T. tonsurans, M. audouinii and M. canis. Almost half of the study animals were infected with T. schoenlenii (49.6%, χ 2 = 102, P < 0.05). Findings of the present study are important in order to provide the health authorities with an epidemiological and microbiological database that are vital for supporting well-organized control programs. Introduction of proper health education is important to improve prevention measures and introduce a better knowledge of dermatophytosis transmission.