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Dermatophytes and Dogs Science Fair Projects Use Your Pet in Dermatophytes and Dogs Science Fair Projects
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Harvest test populations of dermatophytes |
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Dogs
Dogs are a great test subject for science fair projects. You can study their physiology, their behavior and even their parasites.
Test bacteria on any surface with the Surface Microbes Science Fair Projects Kit: after hand sanitizer, hands, disinfectant.. for example. You can use antibiotics to test the bacteria too.
Anytime you want to test how many bacteria are On Top of a surface like a desk, skin, chicken, computer keyboard, bread dough, a hard piece of chocolate, cheese, inside of an animal's cheek, etc. then use the surface experimenter kit. The kit will let you calculate how many bacteria there are per unit surface area on the object. You can also test for e-coli, however, only the microbe water kit will let you distinguish e. coli from other coliforms and bacteria.
The objective of this experiment is first, to determine species of dermatophytes most likely to colonize the canine claw, and second, to explore how the percentage of dermatophytes varies with the dogs# clinical health. From these findings, veterinarians will be better able to diagnose canine claw fungal infections and begin appropriate first line medical treatment.
Eighty-eight claw tissue specimens were processed. Half of each sample was put onto a bi-plate with
Sabouraud#s Dextrose Agar, while the other half was put onto DTM (Dermatophyte Test Media). The
samples were blinded and coded.
Each bi-plate was observed and recorded every 72 hours for four weeks for color change and fungal
colony appearance, and stained with lactophenol cotton blue stain to observe microscopically for
characteristic fungal elements. Controls were also done for each method. Total cultures plated equaled
184.
The data show that the majority of dermatophytes found in the canine claw are, in order of prevalence: Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Microsporum gypseum, Microsporum nanum and Microsporum canis. In the second part of the study, it was found that immunocompromised dogs had dermatophytes colonizing 20% (4 out of 20) of their population, while healthy dogs had 26% of their population colonized by dermatophytes (18 out of 68). Based on the null hypothesis, there was no significant difference between the healthy and immunocompromised groups.
Although other veterinary studies indicated that Microsporum canis would be the most prevalent canine dermatophyte in skin and hair infections, my evaluation does not support this in regard to canine claw colonization. Trichophyton mentagrophytes was the most common dermatophyte found. These findings may reflect the subject#s geographical location or the unique microclimate of the claw. In the second part of my study, there was no significant difference in prevalence of dermatophytes colonizing healthy vs. immunocompromised animals. This may be because healthy animals are likely more active and therefore their claw tissue would be exposed to more environmental contamination over a longer period of time, causing a higher amount of colonization. These results provide important information to the veterinary community about canine claw dermatophytosis. 3rd party contributor
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